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He attempted to force a federal review of the case of Terri Schiavo, a young woman in Florida who doctors determined was in a persistent vegetative state, and objected on the floor of the House of Representatives to the removal of her feeding tube.

Now 39, her injuries have left her in a persistent vegetative state from which she will never recover, the court heard.

"A lot of people are like, 'If I'm catastrophically critically ill, you can go ahead and take my organs. I don't need to be dead. If I'm in a persistent vegetative state, if I don't meet the criteria for brain death, but I've had an anoxic brain injury and I'm never going to wake up, I'm in a permanent coma, that's good enough. If you want to take my organs, go ahead."

The health care system was developing tools to keep patients alive in a persistent vegetative state, raising difficult questions about when a family member could refuse death-prolonging treatment on their behalf.

The accident left him in a coma for a brief time, then in a persistent vegetative state for several months.