Better understanding of the coma - like state of general anesthesia could also shed light on patients who are in a more permanent vegetative state, who upon waking go through very similar stages as those coming up from general anesthesia — albeit much more slowly. (scientificamerican.com)
Dr Adrian Owen of the Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge University - but soon to move to the University of Western Ontario in Canada - hit the news in February of this year when his research team showed that there were incontrovertible signs of intelligent activity in the brains of patients in a so - called «permanent vegetative state» (PVS). (faith.org.uk)
Consequently, the term person applies to all human beings who have existence, whether we consider those who do not think or will — including the human embryo, no matter how small — or those who perhaps never could or never will think and will — including the severely handicapped, the disabled elderly or an individual in a «persistent» or «permanent vegetative state». (faith.org.uk)