Posted on 03/25/2005 5:01:12 PM PST by Wolfstar
Karen Ann Quinlan was the first modern icon of the right-to-die debate. The 21-year-old Quinlan collapsed at a party after swallowing alcohol and the tranquilizer Valium on April 14, 1975. Doctors saved her life, but she suffered brain damage and lapsed into a persistent vegetative state.
Karen Ann Quinlan
A dispute arose between the hospital officials and Karen’s parents about whether or not she should be removed from her respirator. Karen’s parents did not want to take extraordinary means to keep Karen alive; however, the hospital officials disagreed and wanted to keep her alive. The Quinlans believed that they had the right to legal guardianship for Karen. This led to two court cases involving who should become Karen’s legal guardian.
Her family waged a much-publicized legal battle for the right to remove her life support machinery. The Quinlans lost the first court case at the U.S. Supreme Court, but were victorious in New Jersey’s Supreme Court. This decision gave Joseph Quinlan, Karen’s father, legal guardianship over Karen. As a result, the Quinlan family decided to remove Karen from her respirator and the physicians obliged.
Unexpectedly, Karen continued breathing and was moved to Morris View Nursing Home where she lived for 10 years. She passed away on June 11, 1985.
The New Jersey Supreme Court Ruling became a precedent case for ethical dilemmas involving right-to-die cases in two significant ways. First, this case led to the requirement that all hospitals, hospice, and nursing homes have ethics committees. Second, it led to the creation of advance directives, in particular the living will.
Nancy Cruzan
The way Nancy's family engraved her headstone
Like Karen Ann Quinlan, Nancy Cruzan became a public figure after entering a persistent vegetative state. A 1983 auto accident left Cruzan permanently unconscious and without any higher brain function, kept alive only by a feeding tube and steady medical care. Cruzan's family waged a legal battle to have her feeding tube removed. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the Cruzans had not provided "clear and convincing evidence" that Nancy Cruzan did not wish to have her life artificially preserved. The Cruzans later presented such evidence to the Missouri courts, which ruled in their favor in late 1990. The Cruzans stopped feeding Nancy in December of 1990, and she died later the same month.
Much has changed in the years since Nancy's death. The federal government passed a law requiring all persons entering a hospital in the United States be told about living wills. Most states have laws governing advance directives, durable powers of attorney and health care proxies.
Now, nearly 30 years to the day that Karen Quinlan collapsed, we have the Terri Schiavo case making headlines. In the intervening 30 years much precedent has been set and much case law has been settled in the so-called right-to-die area. Estimates are that some 30,000-35,000 people in the United States are currently in similar or identical states as Terri Schiavo, yet we do not hear about them. Life support measures -- including feeding tubes -- are removed virtually daily. Yet we do not hear about those cases. Why? Because the only thing unique about the Schiavo case is the epic family feud propelling it into the headlines.
People who so passionately argue for Schiavo to be saved have nothing to say about all the other similar or identical cases. Why? If one believes that all life must be saved, then why fight only for this single life?
Pinging you FYI
We'll be seeing more of them. Count on it.
Yes, we will, as the huge baby boom generation moves into their senior years.
Agreed. I was unaware that starving the mentally disabled to death was already standard practice in the US. Pretty scary stuff!
I believe the passion is due to the fact that her husband received a monetary award because he promised to take care of her for the rest of his life and after receiving same he stopped all therapy for her chances of recovery!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the case of Quinlan...Was she also taken off of all nourishment? Or just life support machines?
google cranford+Cruzan+schiavo
I had pointed this out for the whole month stating what about the passion for the many who don't get press coverage?
Doesn't make this any less a horror though.
Quinlan was removed from a respirator, Cruzan was starved to death like Terri.
I do not know how old you are, but I REMEMBER this case well.
I was quite pleased that she lived WITHOUT that respirator... for 9 years or so.
Why the different levels of concern ~ probably because the Schiavo case is different.
Stated above: Why? Because the only thing unique about the Schiavo case is the epic family feud propelling it into the headlines.
In other words, it isn't about her, it's about the publicity and the way the public has been manipulated into taking sides in this case.
Good questions. Most cases are handled quietly between family and doctor.
Our local newspaper has headlined for a couple of days now families faced with similar decisions and what they did and why.
It's an intensely personal decision for a family and their stories have been gut wrenching and never easily made.
The Wolson Report submitted to Jeb Bush, which was formatted into HTML tonight, makes extensive mention of this matter with the full understanding that there are slippery slopes in both directions.
A national conversation will result from this and that's a good thing. I had not realized until earlier in the week that people did not understand that a huge number of people are taken off feeding tubes in this country in hospitals and nursing homes every day of the week. So people need to pay more attention to the various kinds of life support including feeding tubes.
For those interested, this is the official position of the Unitd States Conference of Catholic Bishops. There are a great many instances, including Terri's, where death by starvation is permitted within church doctrine.
http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/euthanas/nutqa.htm
I understand the Vatican has released a different statement and one would hope there would be some commonality between them but if there is, I haven't seen it.
But, as an earlier poster noted, there was a great deal of concern with the other two cases that made the news. YOu just don't remember.
IMO, this case has garned all the media attention for two
primary reasons:
1. inability to confirm her wishes
2. the release of the culled videos
Sadly, this matter should have been resolved within her family.
The answers are above. However: Cruzan was taken off nourishment and died shortly thereafter. Quinlan's parents only wanted her removed from a respirator. She lived 10 years after being removed from it.
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