I recently heard, on NPR, a professor from a Big Eastern University opining
about the Terri Schiavo case. Yes, he said, there are videos that seemingly show
Ms Schiavo interacting with her parents, smiling when they arrive, and crying
when they leave. The professor insisted that these were mere "physical
reactions", and stated with certainty that Ms Schiavo was, in fact, incapable of
such consciousness.
It occured to me that while the professor appeared to intelligently
articulate an opinion, in fact what I was hearing was really a mere physical
reaction, albeit one colored by ideology, and that he, like many modern
academics, was incapable of rational thought, not to mention moral
reasoning.
It’s like the adulterer caught in the act by his wife: "It’s not what you
think, honey". I mean what are you going to believe? The evidence of your own
senses? Or the expert from the Big Eastern University?
–Daniel Nichols
I suspect Daniel Nichols may be on to something. I propose we poke the professor in the eye with a large sharp stick a couple of dozen times to see if we can surmise if he has consciousness, or is having a mere physical reaction.
Of course pokes in the eye may not be sufficient for the study, but in the name of science I think we should give it the old college try.
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One will still run across doctors, among others who contend that babies cannot feel pain. With the doctors being to more abhorrent of the bunch because they in turn advocate surgery without anaesthesia.
If people cannot even get it straight with babies, why should we expect them to do better in other circumstance.
I was a little shocked when I ran across what’s apparently the accepted medical definition of “Persistent Vegetative State” somewhere in my reading about this case. (Sorry I can’t remember where it was.) It freely equated imputed states of (un)consciousness to subjective appraisals of response to stimuli. I had assumed that the ostensibly scientific term was based on some sort of measurement–of brain waves or something. This seems obviously open to error even when well-intentioned.