The journalist did manage to find a director of bioethics, Ms. Zoloth, who apparently was critical of Senator Frist. She is indeed an informed individual on the issues, and her opinion is not without value.
However, on the plain face of it, Dr. Frist is himself a physician, and I think that he is entitled to express an opinion on his simple, relevant observations. In this case, the observation was "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli." That seems to me something that indeed one could form an opinion, even if not a definitive professional one, based on an hour's worth of video on such as a simple matter.
I was debating with myself if I should have added the barf alert or not