Have you ever been in a home for the mentally retarded? Have you ever even seen a mentally retarded person? I'm betting not but I can assure you after watching those videos of Terri responding to her parents her brain was functioning, if even in a limited way.
Believe it or not there are mentally retarded people who truly are vegetables as far as the thinking process goes and we wouldn't think of putting them to sleep like an animal.
DO X-RAYS OR OTHER TESTS HELP IN DIAGNOSIS CEREBRAL PALSY?
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and Computed Tomography (CT) scans are often ordered when the physician suspects that the child has cerebral palsy.[snip]Children with normal scans may have severe cerebral palsy, and children with clearly abnormal scans occasionally appear totally normal or have only mild physical evidence of cerebral palsy.
WHAT MEDICAL PROBLEMS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH CEREBRAL PALSY?
Children with cerebral palsy have many problems, not all of them related to the brain injury. Most of these complications are nevertheless neurological. They include epilepsy, mental retardation, learning disabilities, and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.
WHAT IS THE PROGNOSIS FOR THE CHILD WITH CEREBRAL PALSY?
It is even more difficult to make early predictions of speaking ability or mental ability than it is to predict motor function.