A person in a Permanent Vegetative State (PVS) has suffered trauma to the parts of the brain that govern higher brain functions but not to those parts of the brain and nervous system that govern basic biological functions. The person cannot think, is not conscious and is not aware of her surroundings. However, the person still breathes, circulates blood and digests food and will continue to live as long as they are fed and hydrated with a feeding tube. That state is considered permanent because it is virtually impossible for the person to regain the higher brain functioning. The person, however, is not considered “brain dead.”
Suppose that a famous professional athlete Dora has had severe brain trauma as a result of a car accident and is in a permanent vegetative state.
Is the athlete Dora who won several National Championships in her sport that same person as the PVS patent Dora?
Though Dora is in a permanent vegetative state, she has not lost complete brain function and it has only altered her actions, not her identity. If this trauma had not happened, Dora would still be functioning as she had been, but since this brain trauma that has promptly seized the majority of her brain function, ability to think and remember, and a consciousness of her surroundings, she is no longer able to perform and communicate as she once was, and ultimately will most likely never be able to again. Though she may not have that same control and awareness of her brain function, her physical being has remained the same, as well as her brain, minus it's inability to function as it once did. If one is looking at this case through the lens of memory view, it is possible to be argued that since she no longer has control over her mind, thoughts, memories, etc., that she is in fact not the same person because her mental identity and remembrance is no longer present. However, if one were to look at this through the body point of view, it is clear that she has still remained the same person and will continue to as long as she is kept alive and her body remains as is. Unfortunately, her brain cannot function as it used to, but her physical identity, and possibly her soul's identity, have remained intact. Unlike something such as Alzheimer's, which one can see someone experiencing forgetfulness of memories and sometimes even their own identity, a vegetative state is prompt and does not alter one's identity but rather suppresses any ability to have those thoughts or actions in the first place.
ReplyDeleteDora who is in a permanent vegetative state is the same Dora who won multiple National Championships, because she has the same identity. I believe that they are the same person because Dora still has the same body. Yes, some of those motor functions have been taken away, but she is still in the same body. The body view states that an individual is identified in terms of his or her physical body, nothing else. She has lost some aspects of control over her body and physical state. Even though she is not in complete control, she still is in the same body. Her brain has also been affected due to this accident. It no longer functions properly on its own. Since she has not been declared a brain dead, her brain is still working. Since she does not have control of her brain, she can no longer access those memories. Therefore, for this situation, it is impossible to make the claim that the memory view is the reason as to why she is the same person. I would argue that both the soul and body view are applicable here. Her soul seems to remain intact as well as her physical being. If her friends and family wanted to bring those memories back, they could use tangible items, as well as photos to help Dora remember life prior to her accident. I think that Dora’s physical body as well as her soul have remained intact, proving that she is indeed the same person.
ReplyDeleteDora surely is the same person before and after the accident. This is unlike the more complex situations like that of fission or the Schizophrenia patient. Dora still has her memories, but she lacks a conscious state of mind where she can process them. Therefore she is the same person according to the memory view. As an example to demonstrate, someone who still has their memories cannot have all of the hundreds of their experiences in their consciousness at all times. They need to be brought forward into the front of the mind in order to recall them. In the case of a perfectly normal person with no comlex mental ailments or fission cases to complicate matters, it is obvious to anyone that just because they aren't thinking about Christmas last year doesn't mean they don't remember it. Therefore, a memory does not have to be in the conscious state of mind to be considered a memory. According to the memory view, this means they are the same person regardless of if they are actively thinking about and recalling a memory. Similarly, if the person were to be asleep or unconscious due to some reversible physical ailment, they would still be the same person even though they don't have a conscious stream of thoughts in which they could call up a particular memory. If they were to awaken given proper sleep or the appropriate medical care, they could easily recall their memories and bring them forth into that stream of consciousness to prove it. Because of this concept, it can be agreed that personal identity is not dependent on the ability to recall a memory in a state of conscious thought according to the memory view. The only difference between Dora and someone asleep is that Dora is permanently unable to access her memories.
ReplyDeleteAndi Lee
Despite the idea that Dora is a different person in a vegetative state, because of her capabilities and physical identity remaining the same, she can be considered the same person. Dora’s mind is still retaining the capabilities of basic human survivability, such as breathing, and having circulation, and before her brain trauma, was capable of feats such as winning national championships. One could consider the drastic change in her personality, and memory collection to result in an entirely new identity, a new Dora if you would. A memory perspective on identity supports this claim by supporting the idea that your identity is based on the direct and indirect connection of the sameness of your experiences in the past. With the new Darla only having the capabilities of survivability and having no recollection of her previous and current surroundings, she is considered a new identity. Not the Dora that was successful in her attempts to achieve a national championship, but the Dora that is in a vegetative state. Despite these claims, a rebuttal supporting the physical mindset on identity gives preferred information towards the claim that Dora has maintained a singular identity her entire life. The physical identity supports the perspective that a person’s identity is solely based on retaining their physical entity for the entirety of their life. Identification that Dora has remained the same physical entity throughout her life up to the present gives evidence towards her retained identity. Evidence can include the experiences that Dora face which also add to her ever-growing identity; the biggest experiences being her winning the national championship and having the brain trauma. Dora can be identified by others, and previously when she had the mental capacity to do so, herself, as the woman that won the national championship and the woman who experienced brain trauma. There is no significance in the experience of entering a vegetative state that would change her entire identity. I would additionally argue that it is slightly unfair to consider the Dora currently in a vegetative state, not the same identity that has accomplished feats such as winning a national championship. Dora has maintained a singular identity through her physical status, although there are claims that due to her memory loss, she is a different identity.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe Dora who is in a permanent vegative state is the same Dora who won multiple national championship. She was once won multiple championships, but now she has no control over her body or brain and has to eat through a tube. I believe that since she still has the same body she is still the same person. Even though she does not have any control over her body, there was still a tine where she was able to do things out of the ordinary. Even though she has no control, her body is still in the same state and is not damaged in any way. On the other hand, her brain is still intact as well, so she just lost control and has not changed. This could have the same reasoning for someone who has suffered Alzheimer’s, they do not remember now certain things from their past, but those thoughts are still locked away somewhere in their brain. Although Dora does not have recollection of her past now, she could possibly still have glimpses of what she did because those memories are still there she just has no way of accessing them. Finally, according to the memory view she is still the same, because she has a sameness in experiences as the old Dora did, so she is the same.
ReplyDelete