Were there to be no support in the whole history of ethical and moral thought, were there no acknowledged confirmation from medical science, were the history of legal opinion to the contrary, we would still have to conclude on the basis of God's Holy Word that the unborn child is a person in the sight of God. He is protected by the sanctity of life graciously given to each individual by the Creator, Who alone places His image upon man and grants them any right to life which they have.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Terri's News Alert: More Alarming News
More Alarming News: New Study Finds Increasing Evidence of "PVS" Misdiagnosis
July 30, 2009 (The Economist)
A newly published study suggests that a lot of people who have been diagnosed as being in a vegetative state are not in one
Labels matter. Indeed, they can be the difference between life and death. Someone lying in a hospital bed labelled "minimally conscious state" will be kept on life support indefinitely. If the label says "vegetative state," however, that life support could be turned off any time. A layman might not be able to tell the difference. But a doctor can.
Or can he? A worrying study just published in BioMed Central Neurology by Caroline Schnakers, Steven Laureys and their colleagues at the University of Liège's coma science group suggests that perhaps he cannot-or, perhaps worse, that he prefers to use his intuition rather than the latest diagnostic techniques to tell the difference. As a result, many people may be at risk of early termination even when they show flickering signs that their consciousness has not departed entirely.
(continue reading...)
(watch Terri's response to physician asking "open your eyes"...)