Advances in the medical treatment of critically ill patients have successfully treated many critically ill patients, but have also resulted in many survivors being in a comatose state for extended periods of time, with approximately 30-40% of patients transitioning to a persistent vegetative state (PVS). PVS is a state following severe brain damage in which the patient passes from a comatose state to an awakened state of undetectable consciousness. Are vegetative patients really unconscious, like plants? Do they have a mind of their own? How do we treat these special people? The latest foreign research shows that vegetative people can communicate with doctors simply through brain waves. This is the world’s first case of a “permanent vegetable” using brain waves to “talk” with a doctor, which is of epoch-making significance. A 29-year-old man who had been in a deep coma for seven years. The patient was severely brain damaged after a car accident in early 2003 and has been a vegetable since then. He was able to respond to “selective questions”. For example, when asked, “Is your father’s name Thomas?” He could respond “no” by thinking about it; when he was asked “Is your father’s name Alexander?” he could immediately respond “yes”! The researchers asked a total of six similar questions, including “Do you have sisters? The scans showed that he got five of the six multiple-choice questions correct! The patient was in a “deep sleep” and could not only hear the questions, but could also “speak” through brain waves. The results of this research were published and shocked the international medical community! In March 2005, the right to life and death of a female vegetable, Terri Schaefer, was the subject of a legal debate in the United States. In March 2005, the issue of Trishavo’s right to live and die sparked a legal battle in the United States. Finally, a federal court ruled to remove her feeding tube for the third time, and 13 days later, after 15 years in a vegetative state, she stopped breathing at the age of 40. One wonders if Chavo would have been sentenced to “death” if her brain’s ability to perceive had been proven to still exist. Would she have preferred to live or accept death? How do medical experts define a vegetative state? In 1994 (The Multi-Society Task Force), the medical characteristics of persistent vegetative state (PVS) were summarized: PVS is a clinical state in which there is a complete inability to perceive oneself and one’s surroundings; there are sleep-wake cycles; the autonomic functions of the brainstem and hypothalamus are fully or partially preserved; the person with PVS has no sustained, reproducible, purposeful or random sensory response to visual, auditory, tactile or noxious stimuli. reproducible, purposeful, or random behavioral responses to visual, auditory, tactile, or noxious stimuli; inability to comprehend or express language; incontinence; residual and variable cranial nerve or spinal cord counter; and brain damage for more than 1 month. It has been reported that patients with post-traumatic PVS are unlikely to awaken after 12 months, and that awakening after 3 months is rare in patients with non-traumatic PVS. But is this the case? Although some patients have clinical symptoms that meet the criteria for PVS, there are significant differences in prognosis with different grading of clinical severity, different scores, and different electrophysiological indices. How to accurately determine whether PVS is present and the score of PVS is important to judge the effectiveness of treatment and the difference between various treatment methods. Even in patients who meet the above clinical characteristics of PVS, the degree of brain damage varies greatly, and this damage includes both structural and functional aspects. the vast majority of patients with PVS do not recover spontaneously from the vegetative state, but some cases can be expected to awaken from the vegetative state through appropriate treatment in appropriately selected cases. Do we give such a population the ability to wake up and perceive the world and perceive themselves again? Do we have the right to decide everything for them? Do we have the right to be able to decide their future based on what we like or dislike?