Catholic hospitals in the United States are deliberating whether to uphold Pope John Paul II’s latest teaching on treatment offered to patients who are in a persistent vegetative state. Last month, ...

Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose husband and parents are battling over whether to let her die or keep her alive, exists in the rare and paradoxical "persistent vegetative state," ...

Those who don’t are considered to be in a persistent vegetative state. Patients who suffer heart attacks or strokes, like Schiavo, have a much more widespread death of brain cells because of lack of ...