Dittos.
I've long harbored a suspicion that what we consider the state of being brain dead is much more rare than we think--after all, just about every person who comes out of a coma says that he or she was quite aware of the outside world. It's merely that the brain cannot sync with the body.
We should treat all people in such states with just as much love and attention as if they were perfectly healthy and able to communicate, if not more so. Hopefully, with more advances, we can shift our focus to determining awareness and developing methods of giving people in Terri's situation more means of communication.
I was in a coma for 5 weeks...didnt remember much.....but glad they kept the tubes in.....that was 35 years ago