Whilst we are contemplating what it means that a woman diagnosed as PVS is actually cognitive, as determined by MRI tests, let us not forget this very interesting development from a few months ago. Remember, when Ambien apparently aroused three PVS patients in S. Africa, permitting them to interact so long as the drug’s effect lasted?
I have no idea how all of this will turn out. But this much I do know: What we don’t know about cognitive disabilities should make doctors and bioethicists a little more humble and definitely more reluctant to deprive these helpless people of food and water.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
