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Arch Neurol. 2004;61:1354-1355.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The review by Kobylarz and Schiff in this issue of ARCHIVES points toward a future of greater diagnostic precision for states of impaired consciousness with eventual implications for prognosis and treatment of severe brain injury.¹

Bringing additional clarity to the diagnostic process would seem to be an unimpeachable good. Knowledge, at least in Baconian science, has always been empowering and value-neutral. Unfortunately, improving our understanding of disorders of consciousness is a contentious area. One need only recall the highly publicized case of Terry Schiavo in Florida in which diagnostic distinctions were intentionally conflated by ideology to promote a political agenda.

In the Schiavo case, a family was divided against itself over the removal of artificial nutrition and hydration from a 39-year-old woman in the permanent vegetative state following anoxic brain injury in 1990.² Her husband sought to remove her feeding tube, citing her prior wishes and the futility of . . . [Full Text of this Article]

THE ETHICAL OBLIGATIONS OF NEUROLOGISTS


CULTURAL REFLECTIONS AND NEUROLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS

THE RIGHT TO DIE AND THE RIGHT TO CARE

AUTHOR INFORMATION
Joseph J. Fins, MD; Fred Plum, MD

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