Awakenings

In the movie Awakenings,  Dr. Sayer gets a job at a medical facility. At first he believes he is applying for a job in research, but in truth it is for a job as a regular doctor. His research background begins to show when he starts questioning why some patients were simply part of "the garden" and did not interact at all. Instead of bypassing them like all of the other doctors, Dr. Sayer begins to form a theory. He thinks that the patients have an extreme case of Parkinsons disease. Parkinson's disease is a progressive disorder of the central nervous system that impairs the motor skills and speech of the patient. Dr. Sayer then forms a hypothesis: If he gives the patients a drug called L-dopa then they will wake up. When his superiors give him permission to only start one patient on the drug, with the consent of the family, Dr. Sayer begins a case study on Leonard Lowe. At first, Leonard does not react to the drug so Sayers response is to up the dosage. When Leonard finally does wake up and starts to function like a normal adult, permission is granted to give L-Dopa to all of the other patients in "the garden." After a extended amount of time, Leonard's condition starts to go down hill. He begins losing control of his arms and facial muscles and often has trouble doing regular tasks. This continues until Leonard is back to where he started.

Dr. Sayer discovered something medically very important, but ethically I would say that the experiment was wrong. Yes, Leonard was woken up for a period of time, but he was fully aware of decent back into his coma and knew that there was a good possibility that he might not wake back up again or if he did it might be in another thirty years.