There is much buzz about a just-released report in the clinical journal Neurorehabilitation, which reports a case study of three patients, reportedly diagnosed with long-term persistent vegetative state, who were returned to full consciousness for a number of hours with doses of zolpidem, the medication in the sleeping pill “Ambien”. Clinicians and ethicists are warily interested; the “pro-life” blogosphere, of course, is uncritically beside itself over the news:

End the Madness: PVS is reversible or misdiagnosed [Pro-Life Blogs]

PVS is reversible and often misdiagnosed [HyScience]

Important News: Drug ‘Reverses’ Vegetative State  [BlogsforTerri]

Rise and Talk [Premature Terminal Delivery]

Holy Cow! Patients in PVS Awakened by Sleeping Pill [Wesley J. Smith]

etc.

The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation has already demanded a moratorium on terminations of treatment for all patients in PVS on the strength of this report, as has their easily-misled former spokesperson, Pamela Hennessy.

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