Formulations in advance decisions often imply that a further treatment is undesired when the “capacity to gain insight, make decisions and make contact with other people is due to brain damage and according to the evaluation of two experienced physicians irretrievably terminated.” It is difficult for physicians, however, to make a clear prognosis concerning the course of coma vigil, since there are frequently patients who regain consciousness after months of unresponsive wakefulness. Patients suffering from the “unresponsive wakefulness syndrome” (described as coma vigil or persistent vegetative state) are found in a state where their eyes are open but no identifiable conscious movements can be observed. If there is a detectable residual consciousness, the case is termed “minimal conscious state” (MCS). According to the German Society of Neurology (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurologie, DGN), the latter state bears a distinctly better prognosis than a coma vigil. Therefore, the DGN calls for attention to new scientific discoveries in a press release on 18 September 2014, according to which the model texts for advance decisions can be written in a more differentiated way.