Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 April 2021
We presently are not really leaving withdrawal of treatment decisions to families and there are good reasons why we ought not to do so. To see why this is, we need to focus on what is special about PVS cases as opposed to other kinds of medical cases in which we are forced to make life and death decisions.
One thing which is very special about PVS is the fact that it is a condition which intuitively pushes us to rethink, once again, society's definition of “death.” We have already changed our definitions of death to include situations in which respiration and circulation continue but the “whole brain” is dead. Defining death to include irreversible PVS would merely require extending the definition to include situations where the brain stem is functioning but the neocortex is dead. There are, of course, obstacles to overcome in extending the definition in that fashion.