Jennett and Plum's 1972 naming of post-coma unresponsiveness as "persistent vegetative state (PVS)" characterised the condition as essentially irrecoverable and insentient. The evidence for these propositions was always weak, and they have been largely disproved by more recent research. Nonetheless, the definition and the attitudes it embodies remain generally accepted, resting as they do on a firm foundation of medical attitudes to disability and a public eagerness to evade uncomfortable facts. The first step in altering our approach to people with this form of communication impairment must be to rectify our understanding of the terminology.