The limits of consciousness

Consciousness is essential for one’s normal functioning, including targeted interactions with the surrounding world and with other human beings. At present, many theories and definitions of consciousness coexist, the focus of which can be on the philosophical discourse on consciousness, the clinical observation of consciousness, or the scientific understanding of consciousness through advanced imaging techniques. Discussions relating to whether consciousness is located in the brain, if it is created within certain neural networks or whether it transits throught he brain without being part of it are ongoing.
Despite the variation in definitions and theories of consciousness, there is a wide consensus on the essentiality of wakefulness and awareness for consciousness. A lot of the patients in a coma will not survive, and the ones who recover will generally go through different altered states of consciousness. Some will fully regain consciousness; others will never come out of this state. Clinicians are facing every day the complex challenge of diagnosing those patients and help families to make choices about the future of the patient, notably concerning end of life decisions. The rate of misdiagnosis is still high for patients with disorders of consciousness and we still encounter misdiagnosed brain-dead patients. A number of ethical issues are raised by that non-communicative vulnerable population as for example the importance of a reliable diagnosis for the life sustaining treatments.
Some patients having been considered as clinically dead or having lived close brushed with death will report perceptual experiences known as “Near-Death Experience” (NDE). There are only a few studies that describe that phenomenon, but most of the NDE experiencers describe it as a positive moment. NDEs are significantly changing NDE experiencers, their identity and their relationship to death.
Death and consciousness are intertwined concepts that are hardly dissociable for clinicians in their practice. What are limits of consciousness and how those limits are linked to death. Anyway, the only life after death that we have proof of is the organ donation.