Do 'vegetative' patients have awareness?

Medical ethics- and debates about the propriety of killing them by withholding water and nourishment- have generally accepted as a given that "vegetative" patients have no higher cerebral function after all, and don't really respond to their surroundings other than on a very primitive level.

But it turns out that this may not be the case. New evidence from one case suggests that vegetative patients may have awareness after all.