So what do you think about the Karen Ann Quinlan case?

[madison2000]

If you don't know who she is, you're younger than I am. There was a fierce debate about keeping her on life support some years after she overdosed, while I was in college. I believe they took away the support and she survived for a while anyway.

I'm not really asking, just making the point that this discussion has come and gone before. I hate to see the courts get involved in these agonizing decisions.

[MADem]

1. Jesus, you must be nearly as old as me!

I remember the case, I was for taking her off. But remember, she was a purty white gal too, and younger even than Terri....

[caledesi]

7. I am an ol' fart too. Remember the case. Read the book.

KQ (age...uh, probably early twenties, don't remember details...see I am old) went to a party and went into a vegetative state after drinking only a couple of drinks and ONE Valium that she had taken.

Yes, when they removed the respirator, she lived for 10 more years! God works in mysterious way! <smirk>

[Maddy McCall]

2. And the Nancy Cruzan case

[madison2000]

3. She was pregnant, wasn't she?

I remember the name but not the details.

[Maddy McCall]

5. Don't remember all of the details...

just that it went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that not enough evidence had been presented in previous cases to show that she would have wanted to die if only artificial means could keep her alive. Then, when the case went back to court in MO, the proof was given that dying in this case would have been her wish, and her feeding tube was removed, and she passed away.

Edit to add link with more info: http://www.togopeacefully.com/HISTORY.html

[no_hypocrisy]

8. No, that was Nancy Klein on Long Island in 1991. Her husband

wanted her to have a therapeutic abortion while she was in a coma as doctors believed the surgery would save her life. Right-to-lifers disagreed as the fetus was the focus, not the mother.

[Catchawave]

4. The family wanted to take her off the respirator....

but the doctors refused, so it went to court, the parents won, but Karen lived another 10(?) years. This case is worth a Google!

[JimmyJazz]

6. I posted this last night! Wow - I have a clear recollection of

her case being in the news.

[Jimbo S]

9. I was a kid back in the 70s

This popped into my mind last night and I see you beat me to it. I remember the publicity and not many of the details.

Would any legal ramifications from that case apply to Schaivo?