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Mack's wife, Marlies, said her husband could initially respond only by taking a deep breath in response to a doctor's request.

"Then his eyes started following hand movements," she continued. "He got better and better, but it was slow."

Cranford insisted at the time that his initial diagnosis was correct.

"There is no doubt in the world that he was in the persistent vegetative state," Cranford said of Mack in a 1981 interview. "He had no interaction with the environment."

In an interview last week with Cybercast News Service, Cranford acknowledged a "mistake," but maintained that his original assessment of Mack was accurate.

"At the time I said that, he was in a vegetative state," Cranford said. "But, I did make that misstatement about Sgt. Mack and I was wrong and I did make a mistake in that case."

Cranford argued that Mack's case is different from Terri Schiavo's because a CAT scan of Mack's brain showed no atrophy, while Schiavo's CAT scan showed severe deterioration.

"We learned something very valuable," Cranford said. "If you have a CAT scan on a patient that you think is in a vegetative state and it does not show progressive atrophy within six to 12 months, then you might want to reconsider the diagnosis."

Making absolute diagnosis 'not totally responsible'

Dr. David Stevens is a physician and medical ethicist who serves as executive director of the Christian Medical Association. He believes there is a different and more important lesson to be learned -- that "being an absolutist" when making a medical diagnosis based only on observation and opinion "is not totally responsible.

"Unfortunately, oftentimes, medical opinions can be 'flavored' with the individual's own worldview and preconceptions," Stevens said. "And, in Dr. Cranford's situation, I think, though he accuses others of that, he is guilty of the same thing.

"He is a 'right-to-die' proponent. He believes there are people who have lives not worthy to be lived, and those lives should be ended," Stevens continued, "and that colors him and his medical opinions. And examples of that are overstating the case to assure that people's feeding tubes are removed."

Cranford said that he has "never been a member of any organization that's primary purpose was to advocate active euthanasia because I'm not that supportive of active euthanasia."

However, he joined the board of directors of the Choice in Dying Society, an organization created when the Society for the Right to Die and Concern for Dying merged in 1991. Research by Cybercast News Service shows that both of those groups had previously changed their names to remove the word "euthanasia" in response to negative publicity.

Cranford also told reporters in 1991 that he wanted to be known as "Doctor Humane Death." He has since publicly claimed to have facilitated the deaths of between 25 and 50 disabled patients by removing the feeding tubes that provided their nutrition and hydration.

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