Op-Ed: Experimenting with live patients / Some experts think it’s OK to use vegetative human subjects

October 23, 2006

Unfortunately, many bioethicists would feel right at home in a world in which unconscious people are converted into mere biological machines. Indeed, some of our most prominent bioethical and philosophical thinkers have published articles in the world’s most respected medical and bioethical journals proposing that unconscious patients (those diagnosed as in a persistent vegetative state) be used both as vital organ donors and the subjects of human medical experimentation. (San Francisco Chronicle)