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A young woman choked to death on a marshmallow after trying to copy a challenge on TV's Love Island, an inquest heard. Mia Austin, 30, had seen Love Island contestants challenge each other to fit as many marshmallows in their mouths as possible. But the inquest was told Mia suffered from "locked-in syndrome" - and was unable to cough up the sweet. Former travel agent Mia was on a shopping trip during a holiday in Wales with her mum when she wanted her to buy marshmallows. Her mum Carol told the inquest: "Apparently on Love Island they did a marshmallow...

France has just awarded the Légion d'honneur to a woman who has been a locked-in quadriplegic for 30 years. Maryannick Pavageau received the distinction for her battle against euthanasia. A resident of Sainte Nazaire, on the Atlantic coast, she gave an interview about her life to the local newspaper after this week’s award: "I was 30 years old when I was struck down by this syndrome after a stroke. The disease was little known at the time, but Jean-Dominique Bauby has described it in his book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It is a paralysis of the limbs,...

Graham Miles, 66, said that through sheer willpower he regained the use of his body after he was left completely paralysed except for his eyes by a stroke in the stem of the brain which connects it to the body. His recovery is such that he can now walk, talk and even races cars. But while it has amazed doctors and his family and friends, it has also reopened the debate about assisted suicides and the assumption that completely paralysed patients can never recover. Mr Miles, a father-of-two, believes he overcame the devastating condition by tapping into the "extra capacity"...

By Alex Schadenberg, Chairman, Euthanasia Prevention CoalitionNovember 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Many people will have read the story of Rom Houben, the Belgium man who was diagnosed as being in a permanent vegetative state (PVS) for 23 years, but who in fact had a condition known as Locked-in Syndrome. A person in locked-in syndrome is fully aware of all of their surroundings and they hear and remember the conversations that take place around them, but due to their cognitive disability they are unable to respond.The case of Rom Houben is significant given that many bioethicists are attempting to redefine...