Vocabulary Builder — Essay & Answer Writing
Persistent Vegetative State
A severe disorder of consciousness in which a patient is awake (eyes may open) but shows no signs of awareness of self or surroundings due to irreversible damage to higher brain centres, while basic bodily functions like breathing and heart rate are maintained.
Latin vegetus (lively, active) — ironic; vegetative here means purely biological/bodily functioning without conscious experience
"Nurse Aruna Shanbaug remained in a persistent vegetative state for 42 years following a brutal assault in 1973, and her case (Aruna Shanbaug v. Union of India, 2011) led to India's first judicial recognition of passive euthanasia."
Key medical-legal concept in the passive euthanasia and advance directive debate. The Supreme Court's landmark judgments — Aruna Shanbaug (2011) and Common Cause (2018) — both addressed the rights of patients in a persistent vegetative state. The Common Cause judgment affirmed that passive euthanasia is permissible for terminally ill patients or those in PVS. Essential for GS-2 (Fundamental Rights, Art. 21) and GS-4 (Medical ethics, end-of-life care).