%0 Journal Article
%T Still Human: A Thomistic Analysis of ¡®Persistent Vegetative State¡¯
%A Stewart Clem
%J Studies in Christian Ethics
%@ 1745-5235
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0953946818808140
%X Would Aquinas hold the view that a patient in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) is something other than a human being? Some recent interpreters have argued for this position. I contend that this reading is grounded in a false symmetry between the three stages of Aquinas¡¯s embryology and the (alleged) three-stage process of death. Instead, I show that there are textual grounds for rejecting the view that the absence of higher brain activity in a patient would lead Aquinas to say that the patient no longer has a rational soul. On my reading of Aquinas, the patient in PVS has a rational soul and is unequivocally a human being
%K Aquinas
%K bioethics
%K death
%K disorders of consciousness
%K hylomorphism
%K PVS
%K soul
%K vegetative state
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0953946818808140