Iow, the patient knows you are cannibalizing him.
This all started out with brain function being the sacred part. If you didn't have that brain function, boy, that was the end of everything and we'd kill you. Now we'll kill you even if you do have brain function. You can use your brain function to watch us do it!
The scariest part is that if this is allowed to continue, we will find ourselves at a point where people will be to afraid to go to the doctor for fear that their condition will be declared terminal and the doctor will simply kill them.