Mandela In “Permanent Vegetative State– Doctors Advise Family To Unplug Machine

"He is in a permanent vegetative state and is assisted in breathing by a life support machine," said the court filing dated June 26.
"The Mandela family have been advised by the medical practitioners that his life support machine should be switched off.
"Rather than prolonging his suffering, the Mandela family is exploring this option as a very real probability," read a filing from the family's lawyer, relating to a dispute over the final resting place of Mandela's three children.

Since the document was written, the government, family members and people visiting Mandela have reported his condition has improved.
"He is clearly a very ill man, but he was conscious and he tried to move his mouth and eyes when I talked to him," Denis Goldberg, one of the men who was convicted with Mandela, told AFP after visiting him on Monday.
"He is definitely not unconscious," he said adding that "he was aware of who I was."
Goldberg said he was asked by Mandela's wife Graca Machel to pay him a visit "just to give him mental stimulation."