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I've watched the videos and she's Severely brain damaged but not vegetative!!

My feeling is it has not been proven either way. PVS is not the same as a coma. People in persistent vegative states do have periods of sleep and wakefulness. "Spontaneous movements may occur and the eyes may open in response to external stimuli, but the patient does not speak or obey commands. Patients in a vegetative state may appear somewhat normal. They may occasionally grimace, cry, or laugh. "

Now I don't know if Terri is in a PVS or not, and the videos, while heartwrenching, don't have anything that seem to disprove a PVS diagnosis. THIS DOES NOT MEAN I THINK SHE IS IN A PVS! Only that the videos don't seem to disprove it.

They may do all of that but what they can't do is react to Mom the way she reacts to anybody else and fit the defintion of persistent vegetative state. The fact that she reacts to her mother differently than anybody else indicates some higher function.

the patient does not speak or obey commands

Terri can obey commands. Have you seen this video?

If not, make sure you watch it to the end. It lasts only about 30 seconds. The last 5 seconds are amazing.

I agree with a lot of what you said. The problem for me re PVS is that it should not in and of itself be a death sentence. It is up to the individual --hopefully they have left instructions about what they would want to happen. The diagnosis seems somewhat subjective, and what the patient experiences is anybody's guess.

I think it is oustandingly presumptuous if we sentenced people to death just because they could not communicate with us. I am not the person to judge a PVS patient's quality of life as insufficient. It is not enough to extrapolate I might not want to live in that condition myself.

In Terri's case, she is not in pain, she has periods of wakefulness and periods of sleep, and her bodily functions are by and large self-sustaining. I do not know if she dreams, experiences happiness, sadness or pain. I suspect she does, but the main thing is that she is cared for by people who want to care for her as long as she lives. Her parents and siblings want to take care of her. That alone is enough for me to admit I am not qualified to make or support a decision to end her life. She is surrounded by love when her family is there.