The diagnosis of persistent or permanent vegetative state (PVS) raises ethical and legal problems. Strict adherence to the doctrine of the sanctity of life would require carers to continue to maintain the individual, perhaps for many years. However, few would regard this as an appropriate outcome when the person clearly has no capacity to interact with the environment and has no likelihood of r...

Recent neuroscientific evidence brings into question the conclusion that all aspects of consciousness are gone in patients who have descended into a persistent vegetative state (PVS). Here we summarize the evidence from human brain imaging as well as neurological damage in animals and humans suggesting that some form of consciousness can survive brain damage that commonly causes PVS. We also ra...

Why do we persist in the relentless pursuit of artificial nourishment and other treatments to maintain a permanently unconscious existence? In facing the future, if not the present world-wide reality of a huge number of persistent vegetative state (PVS) patients, will they be treated because of our ethical commitment to their humanity, or because of an ethical paralysis in the face of biotechni...

defining the patient outcome and decision making about allocation of our limited fund and technology for comatose patients depends on our knowledge about frequency and outcome of various coma etiologies. we determined the various coma causes frequency and one-month outcome of non traumatic coma. . in addition the co existence of the primary neurologic signs with the one-month outcome of non tra...

The vegetative state may develop suddenly (as a consequence of traumatic or non-traumatic brain injury, such as hypoxia or anoxia; infection; or haemorrhage) or gradually (in the course of a neurodegenerative disorder, such as Alzheimer’s disease). Although uncommon, the condition is perplexing because there is an apparent dissociation between the two cardinal elements of consciousness: awarene...