Weird Links

 http://www.lifenews.com/bio1809.html

..some of our most prominent bioethical and philosophical thinkers have published articles in the world's most respected medical and bioethical journals proposing that unconscious patients (those diagnosed as in a persistent vegetative state) be used both as vital organ donors and the subjects of human medical experimentation.

I guess it all boils down to your definition of alive. Hay, if I was totally braindead with no chance of recovery then I'm essentially just a meat robot capable of maintaining a constant internal environment. That's not what a human being is, it's what a human body does. So, I wouldn't see much difference between choosing to donate a dead body to science and donating a living but braindead one; they're both just as useless to the previous occupant