Researchers Communicate With a Vegetative Patient

New research suggests that as many as one in five persons in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) may be able to comprehend what people are saying and answer questions.  Researchers read electrical pulses in the brain of a PVS patient with a functional MRI scan and claim to have decoded the answers to yes and no questions from the changing electrical pulses.

While some argue that this form of communication could allow PVS patients to make end of life decisions, others argue that the research reveals nothing about the patient’s mental capacity to make such decisions.  

See Richard Alleyne and Martin Beckford, Patients in ‘vegetative’ state can think and communicate, Telegraph, Feb. 3, 2010.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this to my attention.