Posted on 03/26/2005 6:43:10 AM PST by zerosix
Nancy Cruzan was a vibrant woman before a car accident injured her 20 years ago.
Emotions still linger from Nancy Cruzan’s right-to-die case
10/22/03
No matter how case in Florida ends, 'their agony will not be over.'
By: Dennis Graves, KY3 News
MOUNT VERNON, Mo. -- A right-to-die case in Florida has brought back memories for some people in the Ozarks. Anyone living in the Ozarks 13 years ago is familiar with the right-to-die issue. Nancy Cruzan died in December 1990 after her feeding tubes were removed.
In Florida, the husband and the parents of Terri Schiavo are battling over whether to re-hook a feeding tube to the 39-year-old woman, who has been in a persistent vegetative state for 13 years. Her husband had the tube removed a week ago and her parents want to reverse that decision.
A car crash in 1983 caused Nancy Cruzan to stop breathing. For several minutes, her brain was deprived of oxygen, leaving her in a persistent vegetative state. In 1987, her parents went to court to have her feeding and hydration tubes removed. The case went to the Missouri Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Cruzan’s parents finally prevailed after they convinced a judge that, according to the U.S. Supreme Court's guidelines, Nancy Cruzan would not have wanted to continue living in a vegetative state. On Dec. 26, 1990, Nancy Cruzan died at a state hospital in Mount Vernon.
Sheriff Doug Seneker guarded Cruzan's room at the Missouri Rehabilitation Center. Lawrence County Sheriff Doug Seneker was a deputy sheriff at the time. He questions whether Nancy Cruzan was in a persistent vegetative state. His opinion is based, in part, on her reactions three days before her death when he went into her room to check on her.
"She turned and looked at me and stared at me with a panicky look, sweating profusely, and the thought I had was, she was thinking, ‘Oh, here’s a policeman, he’ll help me.’ But we weren’t allowed to do that,” said Seneker.
In fact, Seneker and other officers were required to prevent others from helping her.
"We had a group called Operation Rescue that were intent on getting into her and they had a nurse with them that was going to replace the feeding tube,” said the sheriff. “That was their stated goal and they kept finding ways to get into the hospital. We arrested 15 of them.”
Seneker says he and the others who suffered through the Nancy Cruzan ordeal here in Mount Vernon understand completely what folks in Florida are feeling.
"They’re going through a great deal of agony down there, I can guarantee you, and their agony will not be over when the matter is resolved,” he said.
Nancy's father, Joe, committed suicide in 1996, after being exhausted by the emotions of the legal fight and beaten down by the subsequent criticism that his family endured. Her mother, Joyce, died in 1999. Her sister, Chris Cruzan White, is the executive director of the Cruzan Foundation, which helps other families who face similar situations.
<< Back to News | Search for Other News Articles
By using the KY3.COM site, you agree to using our Terms of Agreement.
I thought it was state's rights issue? (sarcasm)
"She turned and looked at me and stared at me with a panicky look, sweating profusely, and the thought I had was, she was thinking, ‘Oh, here’s a policeman, he’ll help me.’ But we weren’t allowed to do that,” said Seneker. "
That poor woman.
How haunting for this man.
Chris Cruzan White
Executive Director
Cruzan Foundation
215 N. Cass, Carterville, MO 64835
Phone: 417-673-1473
Email: cjcruzan@joplin.com
I wonder what the position of the Cruzan foundation is. I think it advocates making the tough decision of ending life by witholding the basic necessities of life, food and water. I don't know that for a fact, but the vagueness of the Cruzan Foundation website is a hint as to its leaning.
"Nancy's father, Joe, committed suicide in 1996, after being exhausted by the emotions of the legal fight and beaten down by the subsequent criticism that his family endured"
Michael doesn't really look like the type to reflect on what he has done.
Nevertheless, the Schindlers have one great gift. They can know they have done absolutely everying to try and save their daughter. And I DO believe what comes around, goes around.
Michael won't be the first person to have found a legal way to murder his wife, but he will pay, somehow, somewhere, someway. And then of course there is the problem with one day facing Jesus Christ, who told this little story...
"Then He (Jesus) will say to those at His left hand, Begone from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!"
"For I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink,"
"I was a stranger and you did not welcome Me and entertain Me, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me."
"Then they also [in their turn] will answer, Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?"
"And He will reply to them, Solemnly I declare to you, in so far as you failed to do it for the least [in the estimation of men] of these, you failed to do it for Me."
"Then they will go away into eternal punishment, but those who are just and upright and in right standing with God into eternal life."
ping
In the future please provide a link to the article's source.
Please do not change the title of the article.
Thank you.
1. God alone chooses the time of our death (either by permitting it or commanding it) -
2. Withholding of food and water is not "allowing, permitting or a natural death process", else we would not have animal abuse laws preventing starvation of those animals who are kept from food and water.
We show pictures on tv and in newspapers of animals who are or were starved and consider the people who do it society's lowest form of sadist. When found they are arrested, charged with various felonys, tried and after being found guilty, sentenced to lengthy time behind bars.
Starvation is a hideous process that in the end kills a living being.
If we are so quick to condem people for starving defensless animals, how can we claim any remanent of humanity when we command by judicial fiat that any State starve one of it's citizens, merely because a person is unable to care for him or herself?
The case of Terri Schiavo is the clearest for all people - we know that the Supreme Court have declared that the innocent unborn, have been declared as having no right to live, are we now selecting born people and declaring that they also have no right to live? If so, all of the history of the Holocaust and every evil of Adolph Hitler's "Crimes Against Humanity" are now permissible in 2005 United States of America.
ping
One of the major things that came out of Lt. Calley's trial was that henceforth, both combat officers and enlisted men were to confine themselves to cooperating with legal orders. If an order seemed illegal, they were to question it on that basis. Such a mandate puts a soldier in a difficult position - he better have a damn good reason for questioning. But in these cases, where there is no risk of the VC overrunning your position because you held off on an order you thought might be a tad genocidal, the policeman here had time to ask himself: is what I'm doing legal?
He participated in the killing of a citizen whose rights he was sworn to uphold. Did he stop to ask anyone where they got the authority to deprive Nancy Cruzan of her right to life? The only thing that would have been at risk was his job. Big deal. Her life was at risk.
The Nuremburg trials established that "due obediance" was not a defense when it came to officers of the law or the army committing crimes against humanity, which are generally recognized to be crimes which deprive people of their rights without just cause.
It's not OK for all of these municipal and county employees to participate in murder and defend it by saying "just followin' orders, folks". Both they and the Judge who ordered such things are liable to the same charges as anyone else when they engage in abuse of power leading to the deprivation of rights, which is not an insignificant thing.
I venture to guess that in the years to come we're going to hear these kinds of reports from those who were in contact with Terri during her 13 ordeal (the police, hospice workers and residents, perhaps even some of the Schiavo family).
Her sister, Chris Cruzan White, is the executive director of the Cruzan Foundation, which helps other families who face similar situations]]]
Ah, yes, the Cruzan 'family gift':
http://www.calregistry.com/dyk/cruzan.htm
tom
I would bet dollars to donuts that the decision is not tough for everyone who makes it. I have known families with lots of friction, and I have known people who always surprised me by what they were actually capable of doing (and not in a good sense).
This nurse defied all and went public with what she saw and heard around this "Hospice." (The term "Hospice" once referred to a place who "cared" for the terminally ill and chronically incapacitated. We all need to examine exactly what is going on behind the scenes in these places, IMHO.)
Just as in abortion mills, a few people are stuck by their consciences, sooner or later, and forced to open their eyes as to what is happening and a few of them do come out of behind the veil to report the butchering that takes place in these "reproductive health" facilities.
I fervently believe in a Judgement Day, where the Maker examines His creation and determines our fitness to be with Him or to be with his enemies. There is only one Judge and His decision will not be overturned, for there is no Higher Court than His.
marking
Oh, the police would soon learn, as the SS did in Germany, that after you kill the first dozen or so "undesirables" , it's all easy after that. You soon learn to just view them as objects, then you go home to your own perfect children after a day of killing "defective", unwanted and inconvenient children. After all, the sheriff was "just doing his job."
What if Terri Shiavo COULD swallow food and water as some of her nurses testified? Why not try her on the bottle of Aqua Fina that the little child who was handcuffed and arrested was trying to deliver to her? Shame, Greer, shame, Felos, shame, Mikey. This you have done unto the least of these.
My first thought is that perhaps Joe Cruzan committed suicide from guilt over having killed his daughter.
At least, that's what I hope.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.