To make that decision for another human being blows me away. It’s not the kind of decision that should be placed upon any of us. That’s why it’s so important to have those discussions up front, and to let your loved ones know what it is you wish – it takes the burden of that decision off of your loved ones, and makes it your own decision.

I got more than an eyeful of people and families living with coma during the 3 years or so that I worked at that nursing facility. That has informed my own personal definition of what I’d consider “life” for my part, and I have communicated that.

My comment here, as Lapin says, is more on the living hell it must have been to endure being sentient, but having no way to let anyone around you know that. Watching your loved ones suffer, being unable to communicate pain or anger or your general wishes is for me, an unimaginable hell.

I’m grateful that there is technology available in this day and age to help release those who are locked in from their living prisons, but I still feel uneasy in my gut about the medicine that puts them there. That doesn’t put a value on their life, and just makes me wonder what “life” is. Is living in a comatose state living? I’m not sure, and from what I’ve seen first hand, it appears to just be existing – especially for those who really ARE in a non-sentient state.