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Huh. A profoundly brain-damaged woman who appears to have the ability to concentrate.

I'm not going to argue on whether she's in a vegetative state, but people in that state will appear to have such abilities. It's sort of "The light's on, but no one's home."

Michael Schiavo should have allowed independent tests done to determine whether she's in such a state. Not allowing such tests makes me question his motives more than anything else in this case.

I'm not going to argue on whether she's in a vegetative state, but people in that state will appear to have such abilities. It's sort of "The light's on, but no one's home."

The problem is, you don't know that "no one's home". Doctors have slapped the (idiotic) label "Permanent Vegetative State" on her, and this makes people think of a "vegetable", and that makes people assume that "no one's home".

That doesn't mean that no one's home.

Michael Schiavo should have allowed independent tests done to determine whether she's in such a state.

Even if she is in "such a state", i.e. the state of brain damage that has been defined, by people, and given the label "Permanent Vegetative State", that would not make it all right to kill her.

Killing people because they fit the definition of some human-invented label is a very dangerous slippery slope.

Not allowing such tests makes me question his motives more than anything else in this case.

But once you buy into the logic that (1) Michael's hearsay testimony of what Terri "would have wanted" should hold sway, and (2) if she fits the definition of "PVS" she "would have" wanted to be killed, then you have no right to complain. After all, she was diagnosed PVS (once). From that point on, Michael's simply been looking out for her "wishes"; having future tests (if they don't show the right thing) might harm her "wishes" to be killed.

The real problem is that we've allowed ourselves to be mesmerized by a bogus, prejudicial term because it "sounds scientific". "Permanent Vegetative State". Oooh, so scientific. It even has an acronym, PVS. This is all very Scientific. A person = a Vegetable, say Scientists.

And never mind that laughter coming from that Vegetable...