Ethical Implications of Detecting Awareness in Disorders of Consciousness (By Mackenzie Graham and Andrew Peterson)

A recent BBC documentary profiles the extraordinary work of Western’s Dr. Adrian M. Owen on detecting unrecognized awareness in individuals diagnosed as being in a vegetative state (VS). Owen and his research team have developed a way for patients who are behaviorally non-responsive, and so incapable of revealing overt signs of awareness, to show that [...]