[Ohioan from Florida]

Thanks for that link, Pegita. I don't think that I had seen that particular article before. I found this to be interesting:

"If you need to be able to respond to a tiger jumping out of the bushes, you just want your eyes to pick up the movement," Gebel said. "That's all someone in a vegetative state is doing - following the light or responding to the sound."

Doesn't this sound an awful lot like the opposite of:

(12) "Persistent vegetative state" means a permanent and irreversible condition of unconsciousness in which there is:

(a) The absence of voluntary action or cognitive behavior of any kind.

(b) An inability to communicate or interact purposefully with the environment.

If it is a cognitive behavior to follow light or respond to sound, even if it is a reflex, doesn't that just show exactly that it IS a cognitive behavior of SOME kind?!! I'm so tired of the way Felos has parsed the words that we all clearly understand what they mean. Or am I just speaking a different language?

[nicmarlo]

nope, you make sense to me. Very good sense.

[Pegita]

Your language is perfect, Ohioan ... it just seems there are those who just don't understand common sense.

If you Google for Clara Schiavo FL, the second listing will be KTLA.com. This is well worth another look, because Michael's background is given in full, as well as names of various female friends, and a little bit more about Jodi Centonze. There might be some new information here for our researchers ..