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It's been said here before, but a conventional brain MRI is not definitive at all and would add little to the argument one way or another. A PVS diagnosis is based primarily upon serial exams over time and is supplemented by functional studies - EEG, PET, and functional MRI. Any functional test, however, is going to be secondary to the results of the examinations.

Any functional test, however, is going to be secondary to the results of the examinations.

How do you mean?

An EEG will show immediate brain activity, therefore giving an immediate, accessible examination of medical evidence.

But this seems to be the last thing that the Judicial system wants to see...

They don't even want to give Terri the benefit of the doubt that she may have a "chance" to gain some health back through therapy, which has been denied her because of her "loving husband."

Even in Roe v. Wade the Plaintiff was allowed injunctive relief (Roe was allowed to obtain an abortion) even though it was against Texas State law; because the Chief Justice stated that the case about to be heard was (hinged on the length of the human gestational cycle):

"capable of repetition, yet evading review because of it's shortness in time..."

But he also stated that this did not make the case a moot point, it did not lose it validity in the Court.

So before the plaintiffs rights were decided in the SCOTUS, she was granted a declatory relief injunction, just in case she won the case!

Why don't they allow the same opportunity to Terri??

a PET would show areas lighting up in response to stimuli. It shows in living color the function or working of the brain. The others are nthing more than anatomy and anatomy is not destiny!

I have seen scans as bad as hers in people walking around and talking. You cannot extrapolate from an anatomical study to what is going on functionally.

That is why the PET is the gold standard.