Sometimes advances in science bring good news, but the latest finding will cause mixed emotions.
Research has revealed that as many as one in five patients who have relapsed into a Persistent Vegtative State ( PVS ) can actually hear events surrounding them and are not as previously supposed - brain dead.
The brain is still ticking away, but the body is unable to give any sign of life, and now science is predicting that brain scans may be used to allow access to that brain to create some sort of primitive communication.
Where does that leave relatives who have agreed to shut down life support for the supposedly brain dead - or those who will face that decision in the future ?
It can only mean more court cases where someone demands that life support be continued in the hope of a further medical break through - and opposition from hospitals who see indefinite artificial life as a drain on their resources and an exercise in futility.
Many will feel that this would have been better left undiscovered !
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