Do Patients in a Vegetative State Recognize Loved Ones?

Patients in a vegetative state are awake, breathe on their own, and seem to go in and out of sleep. But they do not respond to what is happening around them and exhibit no signs of conscious awareness. With communication impossible, friends and family are left wondering if the patients even know they are there.

Now, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Dr. Haggai Sharon and Dr. Yotam Pasternak of Tel Aviv University's Functional Brain Center and Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center have shown that the brains of patients in a vegetative state emotionally react to photographs of people they know personally as though they recognize them.
"We showed that patients in a vegetative state can react differently to different stimuli in the environment depending on their emotional value," said Dr. Sharon. "It's not a generic thing; it's personal and autobiographical. We engaged the person, the individual, inside the patient."
The findings, published in PLOS ONE, deepen our understanding of the vegetative state and may offer hope for better care and the development of novel treatments. Researchers from TAU's School of Psychological Sciences, Department of Neurology, and Sagol School of Neuroscience and the Loewenstein Hospital in Ranaana contributed to the research.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131216155010.htm


Sorry I know this maybe a bit deep for some or to difficult, apologies in advance.

With this knowledge and knowing people seem to understand in this state with this new evidence and sorry to ask, but what does this mean now for people placed into a position knowing they could be asked to switch off the their life support?

I really have no idea myself and this may even make it harder now for people to choose, if placed in such a situation.

My stance on this is from the Islamic point of view which is HE created you and only HE has the right to end the life.