From what I am reading Terri Sciavo wasn't brain dead, and was able to participate in minimal amounts of physical therapy. I was just looking up the details on her.
Edit: here is the last video taken of her before the took the feeding tube out. Her eyes open and responding to people talking to her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7fu...e_gdata_player
Its amazing that the courts ruled against the parents because she was responsive and seemingly partially aware.
Originally Posted by Stan.Dupp
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7328639/ns.../#.UsIRlM-A2M8
No credible neurologist has come along who's examined her who's said she's not in a vegetative state. It's just what they want to see. And you can see how scary the tapes are that show her apparently interacting with her eyes open. But her eyes are open, but she's not even looking at her mother when you look at those tapes.
Dr. Ronald E. Cranford
Left: CT scan of a normal 25 year old; Right, Terri Schiavo's most recent scan
CRANFORD: Well it shows extremely severe atrophy. Where those black areas are, that should be white. That should be cerebral cortex, and so really there is no cerebral cortex left. It's just a shrinkage of the cerebral cortex. It's a thin band of white on the outside and any neurologist or any radiologist looking at those CT scans will tell you that her atrophy could not be more severe than it is. So even if she were mentally conscious, which she's not, she's irreversible. She's been like this for 15 years, Dan, and that CT scan shows the most extreme severe atrophy of the higher centers of the brain