unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (08/23/89)
SUPREME COURT FOR FIRST TIME TO CONSIDER RIGHT-TO-DIE ISSUES In what will be a first for the US Supreme Court, the justices have agreed to hear a case involving a right-to-die issue, that of a 31-year-old woman whose family is seeking to remove the feeding tube that has kept her alive for the past six years. The Supreme Court's action comes in the wake of a decade of state court rulings that have struggled with the sensitive and difficult issues surrounding such cases, often the result of medical technology's surpassing the development of corresponding ethical and legal guidelines. These rulings may be consolidated into one legal principle with the high court's agreement to consider the case of Nancy Beth Cruzan, who was left in a ``persistent vegetative state'' as the result of an automobile accident, a state in which, doctors say, her brain has no cognitive function. Her functioning brain stem allows her to breathE on her own, but since she cannot swallow food or water, she has been kept alive via a feeding tube, and could remain so in this fashion for decades. Lawyers following the case say the Supreme Court's recent ``right-to-privacy'' decision in the Missouri abortion case could influence the court's findings in then case of Ms. Cruzan, who is also from Missouri. In fact, since 1973, most right-to-die cases have rested on the principles of the Roe v. Wade decision, which delineated a woman's right to privacy. In the Cruzan case, however, the Missouri Supreme Court, in a four-to-three decision, overturned a lower court decision favoring Cruzan's parents. The state supreme court expressed ``grave doubts'' about the relevance of privacy in right-to-die cases, and said that unless the medical treatment was ``oppressively burdensome,'' a ``policy strongly favoring life'' regardless of its quality would rule. The lawyer for the Cruzans, William H. Colby, said that the state court decision had ``completely'' removed ``families, doctors and patients'' from the decision- making process. In fact, guidelines adopted over the past three years by the American Medical Association and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons would support the removal of the feeding tube in a situation such as this. On the other hand, ``our view is that the state must protect human beings from conception until natural death,'' said James A. Cole, an attorney and former president of Missouri Citizens for Life. ``Miss Cruzan...has a handicap, and people shouldn't be starved to death because of a handicap.'' While a right- to-die case involving one person would seem to involve less complex issues than those in right-to-life cases, where two lives are potentially involved, the Supreme Court seems to be positioning itself to relate the two. It held off the Cruzan case until after the Missouri abortion decision, and will be hearing the right-to-die case along with three new abortion cases. THE NEW YORK TIMES July 25,1989 p.A15. (Compiled from Newspapers and Medical Journals for IMTS's Healthweek In Review.) * Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501) --- Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange -=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-