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13 Am. J.L. & Med. 233 (1987-1988)
Consciousness: The Most Critical Moral (Constitutional) Standard for Human Personhood

handle is hein.journals/amlmed13 and id is 235 raw text is: Consciousness: The Most Critical Moral (Constitutional) Standard For Human Personhood Ronald E. Cranford, M.D.* and David Randolph Smith, J.D.** For the past two decades, the medical profession and society have debated the definition of death. Some reasonable consensus has been reached on this issue, in theory and in practice. In the last few years, however, a far more important debate has been evolving - the definition of human personhood. Human personhood has been discussed extensively in the past with respect to the abortion question and other issues concerning the beginning of life. More recently, however, the definition of personhood has been raised with respect to termination of treatment decisions at the end of life and, in particular, on the appropriate care of patients in a persistent vegetative state. Our major premise is that consciousness is the most critical moral, legal, and constitutional standard, not for human life itself, but for human personhood. There is nothing highly original in our approach to this particular issue; others have advanced similar argu- ments in recent years.' Our position is somewhat unique as it is derived more heavily from medical experience and medical reality. We feel that once society fully understands the medical reality of permanently unconscious patients and develops common sense views based on this understanding, certain legal and moral positions will follow logically. In our view, consciousness is the most impor- tant characteristic that distinguishes humans from other forms of animal life, going beyond the vegetative functions of heartbeat and respiration. Thus, we believe that the permanent loss of all con- *Associate Physcian in Neurology, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota. ** Vanderbilt University School of Law, Nashville, Tennessee. I See, e.g., Green & Wikler, Brain Death and Personal Identity, 9 PHIL. & PUB. AFF., 105, 105- 06 (1980); R. VEATCH, DEATH, DYING, AND THE BIOLOGICAL REVOLUTION: OUR LAST QUEST FOR RESPONSIBILITY, 46-51 (1976); Youngner & Bartlett, Human Death and High Technology: The Failure of Whole Brain Formulation, 99 ANNALS OF INTERNAL MED. 252-53 (1983).

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