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Knowledge of Partial Awareness in Disorders of Consciousness: Implications for Ethical Evaluations?
Recent results from neuroimaging appear to indicate that some patients in a vegetative state have partially intact awareness. These results may demonstrate misdiagnosis and suggest the need not only for alternative forms of treatment, but also for the reconsideration of end-of-life decisions in case...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Springer Netherlands
2011
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3602638/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23526075 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12152-011-9145-1 |
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author | Friedrich, Orsolya |
author_facet | Friedrich, Orsolya |
author_sort | Friedrich, Orsolya |
collection | PubMed |
description | Recent results from neuroimaging appear to indicate that some patients in a vegetative state have partially intact awareness. These results may demonstrate misdiagnosis and suggest the need not only for alternative forms of treatment, but also for the reconsideration of end-of-life decisions in cases of disorders of consciousness. This article addresses the second consequence. First, I will discuss which aspects of consciousness may be involved in neuroimaging findings. I will then consider various factors relevant to ethical end-of-life decision-making, and analyse whether and to what extent the above consequence applies to these factors. It will be shown that knowledge of the existence of partial awareness in patients with disorders of consciousness only influences end-of-life decision-making if certain background assumptions are made. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3602638 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2011 |
publisher | Springer Netherlands |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-36026382013-03-20 Knowledge of Partial Awareness in Disorders of Consciousness: Implications for Ethical Evaluations? Friedrich, Orsolya Neuroethics Original Paper Recent results from neuroimaging appear to indicate that some patients in a vegetative state have partially intact awareness. These results may demonstrate misdiagnosis and suggest the need not only for alternative forms of treatment, but also for the reconsideration of end-of-life decisions in cases of disorders of consciousness. This article addresses the second consequence. First, I will discuss which aspects of consciousness may be involved in neuroimaging findings. I will then consider various factors relevant to ethical end-of-life decision-making, and analyse whether and to what extent the above consequence applies to these factors. It will be shown that knowledge of the existence of partial awareness in patients with disorders of consciousness only influences end-of-life decision-making if certain background assumptions are made. Springer Netherlands 2011-12-09 2013 /pmc/articles/PMC3602638/ /pubmed/23526075 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12152-011-9145-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2011 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Original Paper Friedrich, Orsolya Knowledge of Partial Awareness in Disorders of Consciousness: Implications for Ethical Evaluations? |
title | Knowledge of Partial Awareness in Disorders of Consciousness: Implications for Ethical Evaluations? |
title_full | Knowledge of Partial Awareness in Disorders of Consciousness: Implications for Ethical Evaluations? |
title_fullStr | Knowledge of Partial Awareness in Disorders of Consciousness: Implications for Ethical Evaluations? |
title_full_unstemmed | Knowledge of Partial Awareness in Disorders of Consciousness: Implications for Ethical Evaluations? |
title_short | Knowledge of Partial Awareness in Disorders of Consciousness: Implications for Ethical Evaluations? |
title_sort | knowledge of partial awareness in disorders of consciousness: implications for ethical evaluations? |
topic | Original Paper |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3602638/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23526075 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12152-011-9145-1 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT friedrichorsolya knowledgeofpartialawarenessindisordersofconsciousnessimplicationsforethicalevaluations |