Thread by wagglebee.
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Yale neurologist Dr. Steven Novella and I have been involved in a vigorous discussion (example here) of the mind-brain problem in science and philosophy. There are real-world implications of our understanding of the mind, and nowhere are these implications more important than in the medical management of people with severe brain damage.
Dr. Novella recently posted a commentary on the Terri Schiavo case. Dr. Novella’s post was prompted by a study just published in the journal Neurology that analyzes the media coverage of the affair and offers suggestions as to how experts and journalists can convey the truth of such complex cases to the public more effectively. These are laudable goals.
The crux of the matter, of course, is this: what are the facts in the Schiavo case, and, more generally, what are the real issues involved in the diagnosis of persistent vegetative state (PVS)?
Dr. Novella and I see things quite differently.
I am a neurosurgeon, and I believe that the diagnosis of persistent vegetative state, in Ms. Schiavo’s case specifically and in other cases more generally, is of dubious validity.
"Persistent vegetative state," defined succinctly but accurately, is the denial of subjective experience in a brain-damaged human being. PVS is the medical assertion that a human being is an object, but not a subject.
PVS is the only modern medical diagnosis that denies the personhood of a patient, and thus is fraught with logical and ethical problems................................
Terri Schiavo's Death and the Misdiagnosis of a Persistent Vegetative State
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