I would expect that in your son's case, he was examined and found to be hopeless by people who wanted him to recover. The worry of many people on this thread, and it seems to be quite warranted, is that some people are being declared hopeless by "doctors" who want them to be.
There are a lot of comatose or vegetative people alive today who may or may not ever get better. Such people would represent a very lucrative supply of organs if they could be slaughtered for harvest. Some people who call themselves doctors are all too willing to decide that a patient's organs would be put to better use in someone who would likely recover after a transplant, than remaining in their owner who may or may not ever recover; they don't care if their actions reduce their patient's chance of recovery from 10% to 0%--other matters are more important.
Another thing to consider: scientists continue to discover new ways of healing or curing patients from what had earlier been thought to be hopeless conditions. Consequently, it seems somewhat disingenuous to categorize a patient in stable condition as "hopeless". Even if there's no technology on the horizon to cure the patient, that doesn't mean such technology may not be developed in the patient's lifetime (if the patient is allowed to live that long).
Obviously, if a patient's condition isn't stable, such principles may not apply. If someone is suffering from terminal cancer and is only a few weeks from death, it's very unlikely that any cure would be developed and usable within that timeframe and so the patient's condition might be regarded as hopelessly incurable. On the other hand, a person who is comatose or vegetative but is otherwise stable may well be curable even if the technologies required for such cure haven't been invented yet.
You make some good rational points..and that is what I am asking for...rationality....to run around and tell seniors, 'Run for your lives, the docs are out to get you', is ludicrous on its face, and flies in the face of reality...and yet, I have seen this very sentiment bandied about..I have seen sentiments posted on FR, telling people to keep their senior parents out of Florida, because going down to Florida will mean their ultimate demise at the hands of evil doctors...what kind of rationality is that?