Science study showing brain-damaged woman's imagination in good working order stuns some

See Signs of life: brain-damaged woman stuns doctors with her tennis skills by Deborah Smith, Science Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald, for just one of hundreds of articles out there right now about the recent study that showed how a brain-damaged woman in a 'vegetative' state responded to suggestions that she imagine herself doing one thing or another. I've been trying to find an article without pro-euthanasia baggage attached, and have been having a hard time, but this one's about as close as I've come. (And even it wraps up with a push to go make an advanced directive.)

I've seen misreporting of Terri Schiavo's condition in today's avalanche of articles, and I've seen shrill defensive maneuvers by doctors who have advised families to pull the plug, and I'm noticing offensive maneuvers by those in the euthanasia camp, but at least this study and the hue and cry in the press should spread a little doubt where it needs to be re-established in my opinion.

Why this study's results surprise so many people, I don't know. Way back in the 1970s, when I worked briefly in a doctor's office and also when I got some first aid training, we were trained that it was always safest to assume that people who are unconscious can hear and understand more than you might think. When did we lose that experience-based view of things?

Addition: Amy Welborn succinctly covers related moral issues.