Free Republic

In recent times, the killing of those who are "in a coma" and a "persistent vegetative state" begins with the 1976 case of Karen Ann Quinlan, who stopped breathing after a drug overdose. Her family wanted to kill her by removing a respirator and the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed. It was thought that removing the "life support" would result in her death. As it turned out she lived nine more years until she died of pneumonia in 1985. The one voice in the mainstream media of the day that didn't want the respirator taken off was wondering how much...

ABC, CBS and NBC Evening News Coverage Favors Those Who Would Stop Feeding Disabled WomanA new Media Research Center study finds the three broadcast network evening newscasts have tilted their recent coverage of the Terri Schiavo case in ways that bolster her husband Michael’s arguments that the severely disabled woman is in an irreversible vegetative state and had clearly expressed a desire to die. But network reporters have attempted to debunk arguments made by her parents — namely that some doctors believe she could be helped and that Mrs. Schiavo, a Catholic, would not want her feeding tube disconnected. MRC...

Back in 1990 Nancy Cruzan was starved to death in a similar manner as currently being done to Terri Schiavo. She took 10 days to die and died shortly after Christmas day. The Cruzan case was slightly different than Schiavo's in that Cruzan's family, with her father at the fore, lead the fight to have her feeding tube removed. Initially Missouri law would not grant permission to starve her to death becuase there was a lack of evidence to indicate Nancy Cruzan would wish to have medical care ended. Later the father was able to prove it to the point...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Fifteen years ago, two leaders of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue walked into a motel in small-town Missouri and begged the night clerk for a fax machine. At a nearby hospital, the parents of Nancy Cruzan were set to remove the feeding tube that had kept their daughter alive for nearly eight years. The activists were desperate to mobilize opposition to what they considered would be her murder. "That's how sophisticated we were," remembers the Rev. Pat Mahoney, now executive director of the Christian Defense Coalition. "We were desperately trying to get the word out, desperately trying...

Posted on Tue, Nov. 11, 2003 LEARN MORE Florida case puts focus on living wills MORE NOW SEE BENEFITS TO PLANNING AHEAD By Mary Meehan HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER Lexington attorney David Godfrey usually hears from seniors wanting to create living wills. Lately, he is hearing from people in their 30s and 40s. The highly publicized case of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman at the center of a legal controversy over the right-to-die, has people pondering the uncomfortable question of whether they would want to be kept alive when their brain has essentially died. A living will spells out exactly what...