I'm also personally mostly interested in the implications for brain damage. With traumatic brain injury, in particular. This cooling salt slurry that is mentioned in the article is the first I have heard of this technique and sounds interesting. Usually, therapeutic hypothermia is achieved through external means, but this does it from the inside. Imagine paramedics one day carrying these little insulated bottles of this stuff to pump into patients in the field after heart attacks, strokes, etc. before whisking them off to the hospital.

You make an excellent point about the implications of being able to save the body, but not necessarily the "person". We've already reached that point in medical technology, and there's been some progress with advanced health care directives, health proxies, DNR orders, etc. but as you point out, cases like Terry Shiavo demonstrate that we're still far from addressing the issue fully. I don't think most of us have really thought of the implications either. For example, back when people were more likely to die from a heart attack or stroke, our beneficiaries would get a fat life insurance check. Nowadays, maybe we're more likely to live but be severely disabled, and instead of our loved ones getting money from life insurance, they end up becoming paupers to pay for our ongoing medical expenses that could last for decades.