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Review

Moral Conflict in the Minimally Conscious State

Joshua Shepherd
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
, editors.
In: Finding Consciousness: The Neuroscience, Ethics, and Law of Severe Brain Damage. Oxford (UK): Oxford University Press; 2016. Chapter 10.
Wellcome Trust–Funded Monographs and Book Chapters.
Free Books & Documents
Review

Moral Conflict in the Minimally Conscious State

Joshua Shepherd.
Free Books & Documents

Excerpt

After severe traumatic or anoxic brain injury, some patients enter into the minimally conscious state (MCS). MCS patients evince awareness of self and environment by way of inconsistent but discernibly purposeful behaviors—for example, visual fixation and pursuit, command following, and intelligible verbalization (Giacino et al., 2002). According to most, these behaviors are indicative of at least minimal conscious mental life: MCS patients are thought to possess consciousness. Further, by virtue of possessing consciousness, MCS patients are thought to possess a type of moral significance not attributed to patients who lack consciousness (e.g., patients in the vegetative state). How ought this inform decision making regarding MCS patients?

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