Posted on 06/01/2006 3:25:42 PM PDT by lunarbicep
Neurologist Dr. Ronald Cranford, one of the nation's leading medical ethicists and right-to-die advocates, died Wednesday at a hospice in Edina, from complications of kidney cancer. He was 65.
Cranford was thrust into the public spotlight by the case of Terry Schiavo, a Florida woman he diagnosed in 2002 as being in an irreversible vegetative state. He defended his diagnosis throughout her husband's court battle to remove her feeding tube in 2005.
Cranford's daughter, Kristin Cranford of Long Beach, Calif, said her father was a "down to earth, easy going, non-pretentious man who told it like it was. He was extremely funny and witty and he will most be remembered by how generous he was, especially with his time."
Ronald Cranford graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago in 1965. He served in the U.S. Air Force as a flight surgeon during the Vietnam War and came to Minnesota to complete his residency.
He practiced medicine for 35 years, most recently as a neurologist and clinical teacher at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
According to information provided by his family, he wrote more than 90 papers on subjects at the crossroads of medicine, law, and ethics, including determining brain death and when to stop food and water for patients who were permanently unconscious.
His wife, Candy Crawford, told the Star Tribune that although her husband spoke forcefully about his view on patient's rights, he did not support euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide.
Ronald Crawford is survived by his wife, sons Craig Losure and Michael Don Carlos; brother Tom Cranford and daughters Kristin and Robyn Moder. His daughters were holding his hands when he died, the family said.
This guy will have a hard time communicating with Terry through all that fire and brimstone.
Why would he be communicating with Terri?
What a bunch of crap!
He is now in the afterlife.
You get the point.
I wouldn't presume of God's decision if I were you...
And you have no idea what state he is in other than dead. I for one, am sorry he is gone.
A medical ethicist *and* "right-to-die" advocate?
(scratches head)
Some of you really need to get over yourselves.
Because I say you aren't God and cannot know anything about God's decision?
LOL...
So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire. --- Luke 16:24
If you were making a joke, my apologies for my earlier post.
I hope it was a joke.
Well, boo-hoo for you. I for one, am very happy he's gone to meet his maker.
I have no idea if he is in heaven or hell, but he did commit evil during his time on this Earth. It's hard to weep for someone who supported murder.
"His daughters were holding his hands when he died, the family said"
He was fortunate...the ghouls and twerp baldy judge Greer did not allow Terri Schiavo's family to hold her hands.
Terri must be thoroughly enjoying heaven after all the crap she was put through down here.
I don't buy that for a second. She was brain dead and he reported such. If I were in his place, I would have done the same. Anything else would have been wrong and unethical.
You don't know that either. Just because she was brain dead, it does not automaticall make her either a saint or a sinner.
I'm happy he got to die a natural death rather than by murder and starvation.
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