We hear constantly that people diagnosed as being persistently unconscious should be dehydrated to death because they are not “persons,” or are actually “dead”—and so should be available for organ harvesting. We hear that even if the family resists, futile care theory should permit bioethics committees to impose unilateral withdrawal. And we hear this even as repeated studies demonstrate that 40 or more percent of patients diagnosed as PVS really aren’t.
But the dehydrating lobby merely reply, “That’s even more reason to do it! Imagine the suffering!” Well, imagine you are in the locked in state (awake and aware but unable to communicate) and hear doctors telling your family to kill you. Now that is terror.
