For professionals

This advice addresses a number of issues related to patients who have irretrievably lost consciousness. The focus is on an inventory of the state of medical knowledge about the so-called vegetative state and an attempt at responsible considerations regarding the medical treatment of patients for whom it has reasonably been established that they are permanently in that state.

The committee does not aim to raise every conceivable question, let alone answer it. In the light of the central objective, this opinion cannot serve as a timetable for decisions in individual situations. This advice provides a number of considerations for an important, and often directional element in individual decisions, namely the duration of the vegetative state in relation to recovery chances. The Committee can also discuss some legal questions that are interesting in themselves only insofar as they are necessary to make the requested considerations. This last restriction is also part of the agreements on demarcation with the National Council for Public Health (NRV). For this reason, a paragraph on necessary care facilities for these patients is also missing.