Left for dead?

Here are two separate stories concerning end-of-life issues. The first is dated Aug. 8 and I haven't come across any updates, so I'm not sure how Mr. Burke is doing.

Patient loses "right-to-food" case

LONDON (Reuters) - A terminally-ill patient has lost the last stage of a legal challenge for the right to receive nutrition and drink when he is close to death, his lawyers said on Tuesday.

Leslie Burke, 46, who has a degenerative brain condition, fears artificial nutrition could be stopped against his wishes when he cannot talk anymore.

Burke was seeking to overturn a ruling made by the Court of Appeal in London last year, which said it would be lawful for doctors to refuse him artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH).

Full story at Scotsman.com

“Vegetative” patient shows conscious awareness
Confirmed beyond any doubt she was consciously aware of herself and her surroundings

by Hilary White

CAMBRIDGE, September 8, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – More and more, ethicists and doctors are questioning the diagnosis of “persistent vegetative state,” and new research is opening the discussion. Researchers working at Cambridge University in England reported in a study published in the journal Science that a woman who was described as being in a “vegetative state” is showing signs of conscious awareness while remaining in the comatose condition.

The study, led by Dr. Adrian Owen at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge, compared neurological responses to verbal stimuli in the comatose patient with those of conscious volunteers. It showed that the patient’s brain responded to commands in the same brain centres and in the same way normally associated with consciousness such as language and planning regions.

Full story at LifeSite