Often quoted, this Minneapolis neurologist is not an impartial professional but a propagandist for the "right" to kill. He was the principal voice calling for the starvation/dehydration deaths of Paul Brophy, Nancy Ellen Jobes, Nancy Cruzan and Christine Busalacchi, all of whom were brain-damaged but not dying. He testified that he would consider even spoon-feeding for Nancy Cruzan to be "medical treatment" because that "would be totally inconsistent with what was wanted" (her death). (Cruzan v. Harmon, [Missouri], Trial Testimony, 3/3/88, Transcript Vol. 1, pp. 228Ð229) He wrote in the CFD newsletter (Summer, 1988), "I also believe that there may be extreme situations, and in the future increasingly common situations, where physician-assisted suicide may not only be permissible, but encouraged."
"As reported by the January 2, 2003, Cedar Calls Courier, some area hospitals now have rules in place that permit "medical staff to withdraw treatment over a family's objection." True, when there is a dispute, families and patients have a right to a hearing in front of a hospital ethics committee. But that isn't much solace. Such committees could easily become more stacked decks than dispassionate decision makers, mostly comprised of well-meaning people who either are part of the institutional culture or who have been trained to believe that futile-care theory is the right thing to do."