Rights Come to Mind: Brain Injury, Ethics, and the Struggle for Consciousness. By Joseph J. Fins. New York:  Cambridge University Press, 2015,  xvi + 379 pp., $28.99 paperback.

Consciousness, that most immediate dimension of human experience, remains the most mysterious dimension of our being. Even saying clearly what constitutes the experience of consciousness remains elusive despite enormous philosophical efforts. Demonstrating its presence in anyone but oneself requires a leap of faith. Machines' ever increasing capacity to behave as if conscious through mechanisms that do not require actual consciousness has led to wide-ranging considerations, from philosophy to science fiction. Attempts to explain the mechanisms of consciousness have baffled the best scientific minds. Following Descartes' replacement of the soul with the conscious mind, the capacity for consciousness became the essence of being human. This carries enormous moral and ethical implications. Are people to be held responsible for actions taken when they are not conscious or in an altered state of consciousness? In the absence of ordinary consciousness can a person be said to be alive, and to what extent should a body that may have the potential for ordinary consciousness be preserved in the hope that consciousness will return?