Opinion: The term 'vegetative state' has no place in modern medicine

A stroke, a traumatic brain injury — at any moment, any one of us could leave behind our normal state of consciousness and start to require ’round-the-clock care. Sometimes, a patient displays regular cycles of wakefulness and sleep without regaining the capacity for normal voluntary action. This is a tragic situation for the patient’s family — but what, if anything, might the patient themselves be experiencing?

It’s impossible to say with certainty. Patients may smile, grimace, cry, grunt, or groan while awake, and families will often take these as signs of pain and pleasure. But their doctors usually remain skeptical, suspecting these  behaviors are merely reflexes.

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