Man in Supposed 23-Year-Long Coma Speaks, Says He Was Always Conscious
I mention this article because I think it is relevant to the libertarian debate over definitions of personhood and natural rights:
After he was the victim of an automobile accident, doctors said 23-year-old Rom Houben was in a comatose state and unable to communicate with those around him. Now, 23 years later, the 46-year-old says he felt trapped as he was conscious the entire time and attempted to communicate...Although tests at the time showed that he was essentially "extinct," newer tests conducted just three years ago showed Houben’s brain was functioning normally — and his renewed ability to communicate is something he describes as a "second birth."...Laureys says physicians need to not be so quick to label patients as in a vegetative state, because such a diagnosis can be incorrect..."We hear constantly that people diagnosed as being persistently unconscious should be dehydrated to death because they are not ‘persons,’ or are actually ‘dead’ — and so should be available for organ harvesting,"It's also relevant because in our present corporatist health care system, doctors routinely pressure the families of so-called brain dead people to kill their relatives in order to harvest their organs. It turns out, some of those people are still functioning mentally. Also, now that we know socialized medicine leads to "cost saving" measures such as starving babies to death, this is something to keep in mind.
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