Ex-archbishop Carey backs assisted suicide

Yahoo – AFP, 12 July 2014

Dr George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, speaks at the funeral of Queen

Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in London on April 9, 2002 (AFP Photo/Ben Curtis)

London (AFP) - The former leader of the Church of England George Carey on Saturday said he had changed his mind and would support a British bill to allow assisted suicide in certain cases.

Current Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby later restated his and the Church's opposition to the bill, saying it could open the way to abuse and neglect of older people.

But Carey, who now sits in the House of Lords -- parliament's upper chamber -- after leaving office as the spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans in 2002, told the Daily Mail that he had dropped his long-standing opposition.

"The fact is I've changed my mind," he wrote in a piece for the British newspaper.

"The old philosophical certainties have collapsed in the face of the reality of needless suffering," he explained.

The former cleric, 78, said he would support the bill, brought by Lord Charles Falconer, which would allow mentally-capable adults to request help to die if they were suffering from a terminal illness and had less than six months to live.

It is due to be debated in the House of Lords next week.

The Church of England has consistently argued for no law change, and its current leader repeated his opposition.

"It would be very naive to think that many of the elderly people who are abused and neglected each year, as well as many severely disabled individuals, would not be put under pressure to end their lives if assisted suicide were permitted by law," he wrote in the Times.

"It would be equally naive to believe, as the Assisted Dying Bill suggests, that such pressure could be recognised in every instance by doctors given the task of assessing requests for assisted suicide," he warned.

Related Articles:

Desmond Tutu plea for 'assisted dying' before historic Lords debate - New

Assisted suicide campaigners fail to get supreme court to overturn ban

Assisted suicide campaigners await supreme court verdict on right to die

Top French court grants coma patient the right to die
Belgian law on euthanasia for children, with no age limit, will be first in world

Europe split on right-to-die regulations

French panel recommends legalising assisted suicide

Euthanasia declaration should be renewed regularly
Nine myths about euthanasia in the Netherlands


 "Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... The Ethics of Life

You, as a Human Being, are designed to appreciate and love life. But you put it in a box. You think you live once. You say, life is precious; make it count; keep it going at all costs; make it work. And the underlying thought is that because you only go around one time, all the purpose is wrapped up in one lifetime. Well, I'm going to give you something to think about, something that happened just recently that tens of millions of people all over earth who have the western news media know of.

It was all about one woman's life, and you know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Terri [Terri Schiavo]. And I'm going to talk about Terri because, you know, she's here [speaking of the real Terri]! And I'm going to give you a perspective about Terri that perhaps you hadn't thought about before, and as I do it, she's going to watch.

It's very metaphysical, you know? This perspective is one from my side of the veil. Terri leaned into the wind of birth many years ago, just as you did. I was there, too. There were potentials laying in front of her - a track that she could take if she wished. There was no predestination, only predispositions of energy that laid before her: the parents she would have (which she had selected), the man she might meet or marry, the accident waiting to happen. All of these things were in her "potential track," and she could have chosen not to go there.

But like so many of you, she looked at it and examined it. These were the times we spoke to her and said, "Dear one, you're going into another Human lifetime that has a potential that's awesome - grander than most Humans on the planet will ever experience. You'll get to present something to tens of millions of people. You'll make them think about life. You'll change the legal system of your country. You'll awaken peoples' awareness to situations that need to be addressed with respect to morality, integrity, and even intuition. Will you do it?"

And I remember what she said. The grand angel who stood before me, who you now call Terri, smiled broadly and said, "I'm ready for that." And some of you cry in your sorrow and say "Why is this Human dead? How could such a thing be tolerated? Why would such a thing happen? Life is so precious." And I ask you this, as Terri looks on in her joy, would you take this away from her? Would you take that away from humanity, what she showed and did that resulted directly in her passing?

Start thinking of these things, perhaps differently. We've told you before that there are even those Human Beings who come in with a predisposition of suicide! What a horrible thought, you might say. "Kryon, could that even be appropriate?" And we say this: More than appropriate, it's by design! "But why should that be?" You might say. "What a horrible dishonorable death." And if that's your reaction, you're placing the whole grand picture in your own little Human box.

When you start examining it spiritually, without Human bias, you start to see that around a suicide there's this energy that develops. It's all about the family. Is there shame? Is there drama? Does it kick the family in the pants so that perhaps they might study things they never did - or perhaps they might they even look within themselves for spirituality? Blessed is the one that comes in with these tasks [like suicide]. There are so many of them who do. For these are the grease of personal change within families, and provide a gift that is grand!

You see, Spirit looks at these things differently. The curtain goes up, it goes down. You come and you go and there are profound lessons, some of which are taught harshly, by those who teach them through their own deaths.

"Well, what is it Kryon? Don't dodge the question with a diversion to suicide, for this isn't what Terri did. Is it proper or is it improper to have somebody in this vegetative state put to death by others around her?" Our answer: Exactly which Human are you talking about? You want a blanket answer, don't you? For six and half billion souls and paths, you want one answer for all. Well, you won't get one. For Terri, the answer is a solid yes. It was as it should have been. She came in with this grand opportunity to change the world, and she did it while everyone watched.

There is appropriateness in all things and sometimes you create for yourselves what seems to be inappropriate. Yet later you understand what the gift was within the challenge. Celebrate Terri, and don't think of this as a shameful thing that Humans did to her. Think of it instead as a book that was written for you to look at, one which pushes you to a place to ask, "What should we do about this now, personally? What should our legislatures do about this, if anything? How can we approach these things more humanely and with more honor? Is our culture addressing this issue? Are we addressing this issue personally?" Let's put these questions where they belong. It's not about "right to life"; it's about the appropriateness of "this life." Each case is individual, and some are profoundly given for the planet and for those around the individual.

Oh, as all of you came into this planet and leaned into the wind of birth separately, each was unique. Each of you has a different story, a different goal, but all have the same purpose: the elevation of the vibration of the planet. Sometimes it happens to many of you at the same time. We'll get to that before we finish. ..."

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)

Assisted suicide campaigners await supreme court verdict on right to die

Court will decide on two legal challenges, but one former lord chief justice believes this issue should be decided by parliament 

theguardian.com, Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent, Wednesday 25 June 2014

Paul Lamb, a right-to-die campaigner awaiting a verdict from the supreme court
on his challenge to the law. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Campaigners for the right to assisted suicide will learn on Wednesday whether the ban on doctors helping to end the lives of their patients can be lifted. The supreme court will deliver its verdict this morning on two related cases brought by men who are severely ill but require medical assistance in order to die.

The legal challenges have been brought by Paul Lamb, who suffered catastrophic injuries after a car accident, Jane Nicklinson, the widow of the right-to-die campaigner Tony, and a claimant known only as AM or "Martin".

Nine of the 12 justices on the supreme court sat on the bench considering the appeals, a sign of the legal sensitivities surrounding the claims. In the court of appeal, the former lord chief justice, Lord Judge, declared such issues were a matter for parliament and that: "the law relating to assisting suicide cannot be changed by judicial decision".

Paul Lamb, 58, who needs 24-hour care, is supporting the case originally brought by Tony Nicklinson, a sufferer of "locked-in syndrome" who died in 2012, a week after losing his high court euthanasia battle.

Their lawyers argue that the prohibition on assisted suicide in the Suicide Act 1961 is incompatible with rights to respect for private and family life as contained in article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

A defence of necessity, they maintain, exists making it lawful for a doctor to assist, or to have assisted, in the suicide of people who have made a voluntary, clear, settled and informed wish to end their lives but were unable to do so on their own.

Lamb experiences constant pain and is constantly on morphine. His condition is, under present medical knowledge, irreversible and he wishes to end his life with the assistance of a medical professional.

Martin is 49,a man who, in August 2008 at the age of 43, suffered a brainstem stroke that left him unable to speak and virtually unable to move. He also wishes to commit suicide, but is unable to do so without assistance.

His legal challenge is slightly different. Since February 2010, when the director of public prosecutions (DPP) guidelines were changed, friends and close family members who take individuals to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland for assisted dying no longer face being charged.

However, Martin's friends and family are unwilling to provide such help so he would have to rely on others. As the legal guidelines now stand, anyone else helping him would be at risk of criminal prosecution.

Martin's lawyers says that the DPP's guidelines should be rewritten because they interfere with his article 8 rights and make the consequences of a person encouraging or assisting him to commit suicide "insufficiently foreseeable".

Under the Suicide Act 1961, helping someone end their life is a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison. A number of organisations have intervened in the case, including Dignity in Dying, the British Humanist Association and Care Not Killing.

Lord Falconer, a former Lord Chancellor, has introduced a private member's bill into the House of Lords aimed at legalising assisted dying. It would permit doctors to administer a lethal dose of drugs to terminally-ill patients given less than six months to live.

Related Articles:

Assisted suicide campaigners fail to get supreme court to overturn ban - New

French doctor acquitted of poisoning charges after giving lethal injections - New
Top French court grants coma patient the right to die

Belgian law on euthanasia for children, with no age limit, will be first in world

Europe split on right-to-die regulations

French panel recommends legalising assisted suicide

Euthanasia declaration should be renewed regularly
Nine myths about euthanasia in the Netherlands


 "Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... The Ethics of Life

You, as a Human Being, are designed to appreciate and love life. But you put it in a box. You think you live once. You say, life is precious; make it count; keep it going at all costs; make it work. And the underlying thought is that because you only go around one time, all the purpose is wrapped up in one lifetime. Well, I'm going to give you something to think about, something that happened just recently that tens of millions of people all over earth who have the western news media know of.

It was all about one woman's life, and you know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Terri [Terri Schiavo]. And I'm going to talk about Terri because, you know, she's here [speaking of the real Terri]! And I'm going to give you a perspective about Terri that perhaps you hadn't thought about before, and as I do it, she's going to watch.

It's very metaphysical, you know? This perspective is one from my side of the veil. Terri leaned into the wind of birth many years ago, just as you did. I was there, too. There were potentials laying in front of her - a track that she could take if she wished. There was no predestination, only predispositions of energy that laid before her: the parents she would have (which she had selected), the man she might meet or marry, the accident waiting to happen. All of these things were in her "potential track," and she could have chosen not to go there.

But like so many of you, she looked at it and examined it. These were the times we spoke to her and said, "Dear one, you're going into another Human lifetime that has a potential that's awesome - grander than most Humans on the planet will ever experience. You'll get to present something to tens of millions of people. You'll make them think about life. You'll change the legal system of your country. You'll awaken peoples' awareness to situations that need to be addressed with respect to morality, integrity, and even intuition. Will you do it?"

And I remember what she said. The grand angel who stood before me, who you now call Terri, smiled broadly and said, "I'm ready for that." And some of you cry in your sorrow and say "Why is this Human dead? How could such a thing be tolerated? Why would such a thing happen? Life is so precious." And I ask you this, as Terri looks on in her joy, would you take this away from her? Would you take that away from humanity, what she showed and did that resulted directly in her passing?

Start thinking of these things, perhaps differently. We've told you before that there are even those Human Beings who come in with a predisposition of suicide! What a horrible thought, you might say. "Kryon, could that even be appropriate?" And we say this: More than appropriate, it's by design! "But why should that be?" You might say. "What a horrible dishonorable death." And if that's your reaction, you're placing the whole grand picture in your own little Human box.

When you start examining it spiritually, without Human bias, you start to see that around a suicide there's this energy that develops. It's all about the family. Is there shame? Is there drama? Does it kick the family in the pants so that perhaps they might study things they never did - or perhaps they might they even look within themselves for spirituality? Blessed is the one that comes in with these tasks [like suicide]. There are so many of them who do. For these are the grease of personal change within families, and provide a gift that is grand!

You see, Spirit looks at these things differently. The curtain goes up, it goes down. You come and you go and there are profound lessons, some of which are taught harshly, by those who teach them through their own deaths.

"Well, what is it Kryon? Don't dodge the question with a diversion to suicide, for this isn't what Terri did. Is it proper or is it improper to have somebody in this vegetative state put to death by others around her?" Our answer: Exactly which Human are you talking about? You want a blanket answer, don't you? For six and half billion souls and paths, you want one answer for all. Well, you won't get one. For Terri, the answer is a solid yes. It was as it should have been. She came in with this grand opportunity to change the world, and she did it while everyone watched.

There is appropriateness in all things and sometimes you create for yourselves what seems to be inappropriate. Yet later you understand what the gift was within the challenge. Celebrate Terri, and don't think of this as a shameful thing that Humans did to her. Think of it instead as a book that was written for you to look at, one which pushes you to a place to ask, "What should we do about this now, personally? What should our legislatures do about this, if anything? How can we approach these things more humanely and with more honor? Is our culture addressing this issue? Are we addressing this issue personally?" Let's put these questions where they belong. It's not about "right to life"; it's about the appropriateness of "this life." Each case is individual, and some are profoundly given for the planet and for those around the individual.

Oh, as all of you came into this planet and leaned into the wind of birth separately, each was unique. Each of you has a different story, a different goal, but all have the same purpose: the elevation of the vibration of the planet. Sometimes it happens to many of you at the same time. We'll get to that before we finish. ..."

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)

Top French court grants coma patient the right to die

France 24, 2014-06-24

AFP

France’s top court ruled Tuesday to allow doctors to take Vincent Lambert off life support after nearly six years in a coma, siding with his wife in a case that has revived the debate about euthanasia and bitterly divided his family.

The Council of State, France's top administrative court, ruled that doctors had the right to end the medical support that has kept Lambert, brain-damaged and in vegetative state, artificially alive since a motorbike accident on the way to work plunged him into a coma in September 2008.

The verdict follows a heart-rending battle between Lambert’s wife Rachel, who was seeking to let the former psychiatric nurse die, and his parents, who took legal action last year to stop her.

A picture taken on January 9, 2014

 shows the front entrance to the State

Council in Paris

Doctors treating Vincent Lambert in the northeastern city of Reims, as well as his wife, nephew and six siblings, wanted to halt intravenous food and water supplies under a 2005 French law that allows for “passive euthanasia”.

But his deeply religious Catholic parents, another brother and another sister opposed the decision and took the matter to court in Chalons-en-Champagne near Reims, which ruled against ending his life earlier this year.

An investigation run by three court-appointed doctors has since concluded that Lambert is in a “completely unconscious vegetative state” and recommended ending his life support.

Rémi Keller, advocate general to the State Council, on Friday urged judges to follow the investigators' advice and allow Lambert to die, saying his treatment had “no other effect than to artificially maintain his unconscious solitude” and that there was no hope of recovery.

Vincent is ‘still with us’

"I would like the [report’s] conclusions to be followed by the State Council, that we let Vincent go peacefully, with dignity," his wife Rachel told Europe 1 radio on Tuesday.

But his parents, meanwhile, lodged an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights in case of a ruling in favour of passive euthanasia. The European body said on Tuesday it would make an announcement immediately after the State Council gives its verdict.

Pierre and Viviane Lambert insist their son is "still with us”.

“Vincent is not a vegetable,” his mother told BFM TV. “I cannot conceive how the judges could possibly follow the [investigators’] recommendations.”

Lambert’s nephew François, who has been vocal in calling for Vincent to be allowed to die, told AFP: “All the evidence points towards terminating his treatment. But the day the State Council says his life support should be switched off, I won’t be jumping with joy.”

The question of whether he should be kept alive artificially comes at a time of intense debate in France over euthanasia, as the high-profile trial of a doctor accused of poisoning seven terminally-ill patients takes place.

Dr Nicolas Bonnemaison, 53, is accused of pushing the boundaries of the 2005 “passive euthanasia” law by actively shortening the lives of terminally ill patients.

Apart from places such as Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland, few countries in the world explicitly permit euthanasia or assisted suicide, sometimes known as mercy killings.

But in France, where President François Hollande has promised to introduce new right-to-die legislation, grey legal areas remain regarding the more passive forms of euthanasia allowed under the 2005 law.

The so-called Leonetti law does not legalise euthanasia but also states that doctors should not provide "unnecessary or disproportionate" treatment that has no other effect than to maintain life "artificially".

(France24 with Reuters and AFP)

Related Articles:

French doctor acquitted of poisoning charges after giving lethal injections - New

Former doctor Nicolas Bonnemaison arrives at the courthouse

 of Pau, southwestern France before his acquittal. Photograph:

Jean-Pierre Muller/AFP/Getty Images

Belgian law on euthanasia for children, with no age limit, will be first in world

Europe split on right-to-die regulations

French panel recommends legalising assisted suicide

Euthanasia declaration should be renewed regularly
Nine myths about euthanasia in the Netherlands


 "Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... The Ethics of Life

You, as a Human Being, are designed to appreciate and love life. But you put it in a box. You think you live once. You say, life is precious; make it count; keep it going at all costs; make it work. And the underlying thought is that because you only go around one time, all the purpose is wrapped up in one lifetime. Well, I'm going to give you something to think about, something that happened just recently that tens of millions of people all over earth who have the western news media know of.

It was all about one woman's life, and you know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Terri [Terri Schiavo]. And I'm going to talk about Terri because, you know, she's here [speaking of the real Terri]! And I'm going to give you a perspective about Terri that perhaps you hadn't thought about before, and as I do it, she's going to watch.

It's very metaphysical, you know? This perspective is one from my side of the veil. Terri leaned into the wind of birth many years ago, just as you did. I was there, too. There were potentials laying in front of her - a track that she could take if she wished. There was no predestination, only predispositions of energy that laid before her: the parents she would have (which she had selected), the man she might meet or marry, the accident waiting to happen. All of these things were in her "potential track," and she could have chosen not to go there.

But like so many of you, she looked at it and examined it. These were the times we spoke to her and said, "Dear one, you're going into another Human lifetime that has a potential that's awesome - grander than most Humans on the planet will ever experience. You'll get to present something to tens of millions of people. You'll make them think about life. You'll change the legal system of your country. You'll awaken peoples' awareness to situations that need to be addressed with respect to morality, integrity, and even intuition. Will you do it?"

And I remember what she said. The grand angel who stood before me, who you now call Terri, smiled broadly and said, "I'm ready for that." And some of you cry in your sorrow and say "Why is this Human dead? How could such a thing be tolerated? Why would such a thing happen? Life is so precious." And I ask you this, as Terri looks on in her joy, would you take this away from her? Would you take that away from humanity, what she showed and did that resulted directly in her passing?

Start thinking of these things, perhaps differently. We've told you before that there are even those Human Beings who come in with a predisposition of suicide! What a horrible thought, you might say. "Kryon, could that even be appropriate?" And we say this: More than appropriate, it's by design! "But why should that be?" You might say. "What a horrible dishonorable death." And if that's your reaction, you're placing the whole grand picture in your own little Human box.

When you start examining it spiritually, without Human bias, you start to see that around a suicide there's this energy that develops. It's all about the family. Is there shame? Is there drama? Does it kick the family in the pants so that perhaps they might study things they never did - or perhaps they might they even look within themselves for spirituality? Blessed is the one that comes in with these tasks [like suicide]. There are so many of them who do. For these are the grease of personal change within families, and provide a gift that is grand!

You see, Spirit looks at these things differently. The curtain goes up, it goes down. You come and you go and there are profound lessons, some of which are taught harshly, by those who teach them through their own deaths.

"Well, what is it Kryon? Don't dodge the question with a diversion to suicide, for this isn't what Terri did. Is it proper or is it improper to have somebody in this vegetative state put to death by others around her?" Our answer: Exactly which Human are you talking about? You want a blanket answer, don't you? For six and half billion souls and paths, you want one answer for all. Well, you won't get one. For Terri, the answer is a solid yes. It was as it should have been. She came in with this grand opportunity to change the world, and she did it while everyone watched.

There is appropriateness in all things and sometimes you create for yourselves what seems to be inappropriate. Yet later you understand what the gift was within the challenge. Celebrate Terri, and don't think of this as a shameful thing that Humans did to her. Think of it instead as a book that was written for you to look at, one which pushes you to a place to ask, "What should we do about this now, personally? What should our legislatures do about this, if anything? How can we approach these things more humanely and with more honor? Is our culture addressing this issue? Are we addressing this issue personally?" Let's put these questions where they belong. It's not about "right to life"; it's about the appropriateness of "this life." Each case is individual, and some are profoundly given for the planet and for those around the individual.

Oh, as all of you came into this planet and leaned into the wind of birth separately, each was unique. Each of you has a different story, a different goal, but all have the same purpose: the elevation of the vibration of the planet. Sometimes it happens to many of you at the same time. We'll get to that before we finish. ..."

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)

New ways to detect brain activity

Formula One star Michael Schumacher is awake again after almost six months in a coma. Belgium researchers have found new ways of detecting brain activity in patients who won't wake up.

Deutsche Welle, 16 June 2014

 A nurse with a patient in a coma. (Photo: Wolfgang Weihs)

Michael Schumacher is now conscious and responds to simple instructions, his manager reported on Monday (16.06.2014). The 45-year-old was awakened from an artificial coma by his doctors. But what about patients who can't be brought back to consciousness? A new technique that could give hope to families of patients in a persistent vegetative state has been developed in Belgium.

Scientists claim that their new scanning method can pick up radiation from active molecules injected into the blood to assess the level of glucose metabolism in different parts of the brain – as these simply "light up" on the scan and may mean that a patient could come out of the comatose state.

Schumacher is awake after six months
 in a coma, but it's not clear what
condition he's in

Hidden signs of consciousness

Experts say that up to 40 percent of patients are misdiagnosed by current bedside tests for signs of life when they're in a persistent vegetative state. Medical professionals and families who've gone through the anguish of having to decide about whether to turn off a life support machine have been calling for help to allow them to make an educated decision. Research by scientists in Belgium may be the help they need.

"We are interested in the functioning of the brain in patients who are comatose and who can develop chronic disorders of consciousness such as the vegetative state," Steven Laureys, director of the Coma Science Group at University Hospital in Liege, told DW. "Is there any form of consciousness and if not can we predict the chances of recovery? We try to use these new technologies, brain scans, to directly measure what's happening in their brain."

Laureys says that roughly one third of the cases sent to his center come in with a wrong diagnosis. That's why it's so important that doctors use standardized tools, explains Laureys - to not miss signs of consciousness.

Detecting brain activity

Research at the Belgian hospital focuses on two different techniques. The first one is functional MRI testing. Doctors ask a patient to lift their hand. If he isn't responsive, that doesn't necessarily mean that he's fully unconscious - he could be paralyzed as well.

That's why the doctors also look at the patient's brain activity. Sometimes they can see on the MRI that the motor-cortex in the patient's brain is activated when he's asked to move his hand. That means he can process the question, he just can't move.

The other test is the PET scan, where a marker fluid is injected into the patient's brain. "Injecting radioactively labeled glucose into the brain is using a lot of energy, so we can visualize the glucose uptake in the brain," Laureys explained. "If you're comatose or unresponsive, the brain shows a very low activity in the so-called consciousness network. But as soon as there are minimal signs of consciousness, there start to be highlights in the brain that have near normal activity."

Patients with these signs of consciousness also show better signs of recovery at the one-year follow-up exams.

Laureys: doctors need to make sure
not to miss signs of consciousness

Helping families in times of need

Better prognostic information would also help patients and their families make better decisions about the care they need. Judy Taylor runs the charity "Brain Injury Is Big" in the UK, which she set-up with four other women whom she met in a neuro-disability ward in London. It was after Judy's husband Simon had been seriously hurt in an accident.

"After about 10 months it was confirmed that he was in a persistent vegetative state, but over the next year and a half he did actually begin to show signs of emerging from a vegetative state to a minimally conscious one," Taylor told DW. "He would smile intermittently if he heard a friendly voice, or he would lift up his thumbs or his hands if you asked him to. It was enough to know that he was making some improvement, even if it was only very little."

Simon died when he couldn't fight off a bout of pneumonia in April 2012. Such a natural death is hard enough for surviving family and friends. But what happens when the body of a patient degrades to the point at which there is almost nothing left and their family is faced with the question of whether or not to switch-off life support?

That's what happened to Christopher Watson. After two and a half years on life support, his family decided the quality of his life had deteriorated so much that his suffering had to end. But it took two years in the UK courts for them to get approval.

"The legal battle that we faced was something that I would not wish upon anybody," Christopher's brother Andrew Watson said.

Expanding the research

The impact of the research done by Laureys and his team in Belgium could be huge - offering a clear indication, for the first time, of which patients may stand a chance of recovery and for whom there is little chance of regaining any meaningful quality of life. That could help avoid lawsuits like the one the Watson family had to go through.

Laureys ran his trial on just over a hundred people and he hopes to repeat it on a much larger scale. Although the technology is expensive, neuroscientists believe it will become cheaper and more common in hospitals in the future and provide a real breakthrough for the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with severe brain injury.

Related Articles:

Coma: researchers observe never-before- detected brain activity

Kryon Q&A

Question (2002): Dear Kryon: I've just read the question about what happens as our earth body dies, and I'd like to add another issue: What happens during some diseases as Alzheimer disease, what happens to our spiritual body during the loss of memory, or when our earth body works as a vegetable? 

Answer: This very year we have addressed the fact that you are actually "multiple entities." All of you! When what you call normal Human consciousness leaves the body through disease or injury, this "spark of divinity" you call the personality, is transferred to what you call The Higher-Self. No energy is every destroyed. Instead, it just moves somewhere else. Therefore that life that is in limbo is there for YOUR lesson, not theirs. They have elected this path (believe it or not), and now are here holding space for you and others in a less than aware state. But for them? They are already over here. . . celebrating and loving you for your service to them!

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)