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By contrast with the problem of defining death, there is no disagreement between traditional Buddhism and modern science with respect to the status of patients in a persistent vegetative state. Patients in this state are sometimes said to exist in a twilight condition suspended between life and death, but in terms of both Buddhist philosophy and the current medical standard of brain death, it is clear that they are alive. They are not corpses, are not dependent on life-support machines, and are capable of remaining alive for many years if supplied with nourishment. This view is also undisputed legally. 7

From the Buddhist perspective, the patient in a persistent vegetative state is a living human being who has sustained an injury to part of the physical organism. Such a patient should not, in principle, be treated differently from any other patient. The Buddhist analysis of the vegetative condition is that damage to a physical …