By DAN CHILDS and MICHAEL SMITH
ABC News Medical Unit, in collaboration with MedPage Today
Feb. 3, 2010
 
Read the full story here.
 
For the brother of Terri Schiavo, Wednesday's news that a team of researchers in England were able to use a novel scanning technology to establish limited communication with a man in a persistent vegetative state was bittersweet.
A low percentage of vegetative patients are more conscious than once thought. Bobby Schindler said that while the test using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) likely holds promise for the families of minimally conscious and persistently vegetative patients, he wishes his sister had been afforded this technology before a court ruling allowed her husband Michael Schiavo to remove her feeding tube in 2005 leading to her death.
"It's upsetting to me when I see this type of research," Schindler said. "We were looking to afford these kinds of tests for Terri, but the court did not allow us to perform these kinds of tests."

From The Sunday Times, May 25, 2008

The son of Edna Purnell, one of several people to die in suspicious circumstances at a Hampshire hospital, says the care regime made her a zombie

When Edna Purnell was referred for “gentle rehabilitation” at a local healthcare unit after a hip replacement operation, her family thought she would be given exercises to get her back on her feet and sent home after a fortnight.

By John-Henry Westen

UNITED NATIONS, December 15, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The newly approved United Nations "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" which was adopted by the General Assembly Wednesday forbids nations which sign on to it from denying "food and fluids" to disabled persons.