re: Self awareness
Each case is different and has a context.
Here, I remember of cases about very serioulsy physically handicapped persons beg over and over for helping them to bring an end to their life.
They're aware, but are terribly suffering or are unable to communicate other than with eyelid movements. They are aware and desire death because they can't go on.
That's why euthanasia has been legalized to a certain extend, here.
But when a human being is no more able to communicate, to react, and he's obviously not aware of himself, is it a human being the way we understand it? It becomes an issue to the people around him.
Death matters, not to the dead (it's too late), but to the surviving relatives because that person is missing.
Raoul