This neurologist who Jeb Bush mentioned in his press conference earlier today, William Cheshire, says outright that he believes that “it can be ethically permissible to discontinue artificially provided nutrition and hydration for parsons in a permanent vegetative state.” But having “met and observed Ms. Schiavo in person” he doesn’t believe this should be happening to Terri Schiavo.

He states that “There remain, in fact, huge uncertainties in regard to Terri’s true neurological status.” She hasn’t been fully evaluated by a neurologist for three years, he says, has not had an MRI or a PET. And some of the technology to determine if a patient is in a minimally conscious state has only emerged in the last few years. “New facts have come to light in the last few years that should be weighed in the neurological assessment of Terri Schiavo.”

He writes that Terri Schiavo “demonstrates a number of behaviors that I believe cast a reasonable doubt on the prior diagnosis of PVS.” Among these observations, he pinpoints: “Her behavior is frequently context-specific. For example, her facial expression brightens and she smiles in response to the voice of familiar persons such as her parents or her nurses…Several times I witness Terri briefly, albeit inconsistently, laugh in response to a humoroius comment someone in the room had made. I did not see her laugh in the absence of someone else’s laughter.”..