Self-Determination, Best Interest, and New Diagnostic Evidence regarding the Vegetative and Minimally Conscious States

Journal title SALUTE E SOCIETÀ
Author/s Silvia Zullo
Publishing Year 2012 Issue 2012/3 Language Italian
Pages 15 P. 96-110 File size 122 KB
DOI 10.3280/SES2012-003006
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Recent studies on patients in a vegetative state undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging have allowed to better differentiate the vegetative state from the minimally conscious state and have shown the possibility that in the future we can detect the permanence in these patients of islands of consciousness. Such evidence might further increase the legal and moral dilemmas raised by these cases, since the scientific future advancements will make increasingly complex to apply the principle in dubio pro vita on the patient who provide signals in a reverse direction.

Keywords: Vegetative state, minimally conscious state, best interest, awareness, autonomy, neuroimaging.

Silvia Zullo, Autodeterminazione, best interest e nuove evidenze diagnostiche nei casi di stato vegetativo e di minima coscienza in "SALUTE E SOCIETÀ" 3/2012, pp 96-110, DOI: 10.3280/SES2012-003006