There is a simple test here. What are her brain wave levels? And the issue is simple. She is incapacitated and it should be her husband that decides her fate. Do we want to change presidence and let family members step in when it's our decision to remove or keep a child or spouse alive on life support?
I can't help but think, if she really is consious then she trapped and If she is in a vegitative state then she doesn't know the existance of anything. Seems either scenario lends to the decision the husband made? Anyway after looking around the site I didn't see any mention of her brainwave activity. There is alot about what constirutes a "vegetative" state that I did not know. For instance they have much higher motor skills than I previously thought possible. Both sides seem to have some misconceptions hanging about... The American Academy of Neurology defines PVS as:
"Patients in PVS have sleep-wake cycles but remain completely unaware of themselves or their environments and are incapable of any kind of voluntary movement. They do not have the capacity to experience pain or suffering. Pain and suffering are attributes of consciousness requiring cerebral cortical functioning, and patients who are permanently and completely unconscious cannot experience these symptoms.”
cerebral cortical functioning? That's interesting I would wonder at this point what her analysis is on this section of the brain? I went on to research the Glasglow Coma Scale... here's the deal. As we get along in medical research the lines are becoming blurred! Patients will even go into and out of varying states of consiousness. As time progresses. That does not mean recovery by any means, but a definite slope in the actual state a patient may be in. This complicates things most definitely. :confused: So I apply my own wishes, which may not be that of others. Placing me in the the same state. I would choose to die, and her husband made that choice for her, he says she communicated that to him. Whether he is telling the truth or not should not matter from my point of view. The greater good is we won't all end up on a bed living in a silent world for 20 years or more and we can decide what is best for our children and loved one's who trusted us with that decision.
