Forum: News/Activism (see also: active:news-forum)
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Brain death and coma are not the same. Often confused, even by health professionals and judges, a “persistent vegetative state,” such as that of Terry Sciavo implies neither cessation of brain function or irreversibility, both basic criteria of brain death. These criteria are codified in the Uniform Definition of Death Act, now recognized in all of the fifty states.
Coma is a neurologic condition in which much of the brain function is impaired and results in degrees of unconsciousness and loss of many basic reflexes and homeostatic activities, such as breathing. This condition may be caused by trauma, hemorrhage, biochemical abnormalities such as hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. Another common cause is intoxication with alcohol, barbiturates, opioids and numerous other substances. In most cases there remains some baseline brain activity detectable with an electroencephalogram (EEG)--most, but not all. So a flat-line EEG is not enough to establish brain death. Further, in all the above cases the condition is reversible, at least potentially.
In Terry Sciavo’s case, EEGs were found to be active in every instance. But, we didn’t need an advanced medical device to make the case that there was brain activity. We all saw the videos of her smiling at her family’s faces, reaching toward balloons, and following people about the room with her eyes. She most certainly suffered significant loss of cerebral function, but she did not lack brain activity and she was not shown to be in an irreversible state, i.e., she was not brain dead (and, she was not comatose). She was pronounced to be in a “persistent vegetative state,” a condition newly coined and nebulously defined. Wikipedia summarizes the conditions thus: “A persistent vegetative state (PVS) is a condition of patients with severe brain damage in whom coma has progressed to a state of wakefulness without detectable awareness.” You don’t have to be a medical ethicist or Harvard neurologist to see how subjective such a definition is......................
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