NURSE: Iamolite.
Mr. CRUZAN: Boy, she sure responds to that voice.
NURSE: Yeah, she does. I can come in here and--
snip
Mrs. CRUZAN: You (Nancy) have company. You look like you need your hair brushed.
Mr. CRUZAN: Nancy, we brought a fellow by the name of Bill Colby up with us. He's the one that's going to represent us in this thing that we talked about.
( The parents of Nancy contacted the ACLU and they referred them to Bill Colby. He urrently is a Fellow at the Midwest Bioethics Center, the leading practical bioethics think tank in the country.)
Mr. COLBY: Hi, Nancy.
Mrs. CRUZAN: I don't think she's real impressed.
Mr. COLBY: Is this how she appears each time you come?
Mr. CRUZAN: Yeah, this is it.
snip
Mrs. CRUZAN: Well, Nancy, we got the decision from Judge Teel today. He ruled that you do have constitutional rights to determine your own treatment, so it was all favorable.
Mr. CRUZAN: I don't think that you know what we're talking about. I don't have any way of knowing that. But if you do, why we talked about this a lot before and you know why we're doing it. We've still got a ways to go. But at least we won the first round.
SNIP
Mr. CRUZAN: It's going to be difficult, kind of a tough couple of weeks for her, but--but then she'll be free. And that statement that I wrote the other day, I--Ill read as much of it as I can. I don't know if I can read all of it or not.
"During the late fall and winter of 1986, realizing that Nancy was not going to recover and that she would not wish to continue in her present condition, I made a commitment to her to allow her to die with some dignity. On May 28, 1987, we presented a letter to the Missouri Rehabilitation Center requesting that treatment be stopped. Today, 1,206 days later, we have that court order.
She was our bright, flaming star who flew through the heavens of our lives. Though brilliant, her life was terribly short lived, but she has left a flaming trail, a legacy that I do not think will be shortly forgotten.
Because of Nancy, I suspect hundreds of thousands of people can rest free, knowing that when death beckons they can meet it face to face with dignity, free from the fear of unwanted medical treatment, unwanted and useless medical treatment.
I think this is quite an accomplishment for a 25 year old kid and I'm damned proud of her. I know that wherever she is today, she is looking down, beaming with pride, damned proud of her family. Now we walk with her to the door of death so that she may at last pass through and be free. I don't even know why I tried to do that. So fly away, little sister, and have fun." http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/transcripts/1014.html
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ANGER IN HOSPITAL AT A DEATH ORDER
December 16, 1990
Sharon Howard and many others are not willing to. "I will not stand by idly," Ms. Howard said. "I can take care of Nancy, but I don't want to be around her family."
Wow. I had no idea it was that bad.
Mrs. CRUZAN: Well, Nancy, we got the decision from Judge Teel today. He ruled that you do have constitutional rights to determine your own treatment, so it was all favorable.
Mr. CRUZAN: I don't think that you know what we're talking about. I don't have any way of knowing that. But if you do, why we talked about this a lot before and you know why we're doing it. We've still got a ways to go. But at least we won the first round.
"Hi Nancy! We're one step closer to torturing you to death. Aren't you thrilled?"