Imagine for a minute — or even for a few seconds — that your working mind is trapped in a body that can’t respond to a doctor’s voice or a spouse’s touch. You are, in essence, a prisoner within your ...

(RNS) — The very concept of “persistent vegetative state” is, first of all, deeply offensive. No living, breathing human being is a vegetable, regardless of how disabled they are. Second, the concept ...

PHILADELPHIA — For two decades, car-crash victim Rom Houben lay paralyzed and voiceless in what his doctors thought was a vegetative state. He appeared to be awake, but showed no signs of awareness.

The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) has received many inquiries from the press regarding the definition of persistent vegetative state in light of the Terri Schiavo case. In 1995 the AAN published ...

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This word let a severely brain injured patient tell neuroscientists she was still conscious using only her thoughts. This word could do more harm than good for these patients if we aren’t careful. In ...

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CAMBRIDGE, England — When a Belgian-British research team began to suspect that many brain-damaged patients are misdiagnosed by medical practitioners, they used brain scans to establish two-way ...

Should you punish a disobedient child, or try negative reinforcement? Is your shy new colleague antisocial or asocial? And which is worse: a prejudiced boss or a discriminatory one?

Much of the ammunition in the battle over Terri Schiavo’s fate has been medical language that’s fairly new in the public realm. The terms can mean one thing to experts and another thing entirely when ...

News of a woman in a vegetative state for more than a decade giving birth to a boy on December 29 has stirred emotions nationwide. The rare medical event raises many questions, including: How can a ...

The Delhi High Court has granted permission for an Army soldier in a persistent vegetative state to continue with IVF treatment, affirming his prior consent and his wife's fundamental right to ...