First off, See Below in the thread, my response to tom.

Yes, I know about hemispherectomy and its history. I actually had occasion to study it in relation to the old myth about 'hemisphere dominance' and handedness.

It is still performed occassionally today on very young children with Epilepsy or Seizure disorders that are life-threatening and non-responsive.

The first points that you are missing are the a-symmetry of the injury to the brain, and the typical age or circumstance under which the injury is made.

In such an a-symmetrical assult on the brain, the other hemisphere sort-of, in a sense, compensates for the missing component. Whole skill sets and capacities are lost absolutely, but a functional life can be had.

Secondly, such procedures have historically been performed on the very very young, or individuals who have significant existing brain damage to the hemisphere removed.

Also, many such procedures result in almost immediate death or coma.

"The brain is an unusual organ."

This is a hand-wave. Indeed it is, but this does not over-turn the science and fact of PVS.

" There is evidence that it can sometimes adapt to work around damage."

Again, see my original post about the prognosis of PVS and the recovery timelines associated with it.

"It's a far cry from someone on a respirator full time, or a heart/lung machine, or even dialysis. If it's your opinion that people who aren't able to feed themselves are somehow living lives not worth living, then there's no point ever talking to you again."

Don't insult my intelligence. We both know that there is a fundamental difference between someone dependent upon feeding apparatus for a confined time, say for example an elderly person with the flu or with a throat infection- expected to recover but needing help, and TS- who is incapable of ever feeding herself or being fed or bing given water orally. One one hand its medical treatment, on the other hand it is definitionally permenant dependency on life support. And beyond that, the dependency doesn't come from something second-order, like Polio. It comes from the fact that brain function is so impaired that simple tasks like chewing and swallowing are no longer available. This is apples and oranges to the generic case you are trying to stuff down my mouth.

If you persist in this stupid obfuscation, then as you put it: "then there's no point ever talking to you again".

Davin L.