To the Editor.—
Professor Jennett's editorial, "Resource Allocation for the Severely Brain Damaged" (Arch Neurol 33:595, 1976), is very timely. I would like only to make one point. I have found it helpful in dealing with this problem, for instance in the case of a wife, to tell the husband, "Your wife is dead. This is only her body. It can be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means, but I am sure this is not what she would have wanted."
To the Editor.—
The report by Medina et al (Arch Neurol 33:587, 1976) of myokymia resulting from peripheral nerve injury merits further comment. I have never been confident of a qualitative distinction between fasciculation and myokymia. If one acknowledges that they possess some essential characteristics in common, and thus might represent different parts of a spectrum of involuntary motor unit activity, then a better example to indicate a peripheral origin