The Nancy Cruzan case.

Nancy Cruzan was a 32 year old Missouri woman comatose for seven years after a car accident in 1983. Two state courts agreed that Nancy lay in a persistent vegetative state without cognitive brain function. In July 1988, a circuit court judge ruled that Nancy’s parents, acting on her behalf, could order her feeding tube removed.
The attorney general of Missouri appealed the decision to the Missouri Supreme Court which reversed the trial judge, expressing belief that the state’s interest in preserving Nancy’s life outweighed her right to refuse treatment. The court ruled, “The state’s interest in life is unqualified.” The quality of life was, to that court, not germane.

The state of Missouri paid for Nancy’s care. There are some 10,000 people now being kept alive in the U. S. in a persistent vegetative state.

Joyce and Lester Cruzan, Nancy’s parents, then took Nancy’s case to the U. S. Supreme Court. Supporting the Cruzan’s petition to disconnect Nancy’s feeding tube were the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Neurology, The American Nurses Association and the Society for the Right to Die. The American Academy of Neurology argued that “duty” requires doctors to continue treating unconscious patients as long as there is some chance of improvement. . .which Nancy didn’t have. They concluded that when hope is gone, “duty ends.”

On June 25, 1990, the United States Supreme Court, in a 5 to 4 vote, ruled that there was no “clear and convincing evidence” that proved Nancy would have wanted the tube feeding stopped despite the testimony and pleas of her parents, Lester and Joyce. Nancy, in her thirties, was predicted to “live” for another 30 years.

On December 14, 1990, the Curzans produced that “clear and convincing” evidence to Judge Charles Teel, Jr. The judge then ruled that Nancy Cruzan, in a permanent vegetative state since January 11, 1983, could be withdrawn from having chemical nutrition and hydration pumped into her stomach. She was expected to die within a week or so. The state of Missouri, which had opposed the removal of Cruzan’s feeding tube, withdrew from the case after the Cruzans produced “clear evidence” that Nancy would have wanted to be taken off the tube feedings.

Nancy died Wednesday, December 26, 1990, twelve days after the tubes were removed. Lester and Joyce Cruzan, who had long held that their daughter was already “gone,” issued a statement calling her “our bright flaming star who flew through the heavens of our lives.”

After Nancy Cruzan had been taken off tube feeding, some religious bigots stormed the facility where Nancy lay dying. They were going to try to put her back on! They were stopped. Nineteen of them were placed in jail. A bigot is a person of strong conviction or prejudice, especially in matters of philosophy, politics, race or religion, who is intolerant of those who have differing opinions, no matter how reasonable or popular. Bigots cannot appreciate the valid opinions and beliefs of others. They will not follow democratic principles or even the laws of the land when they disagree with them. They follow their own absolute agenda which they dictate to all people across all situations across all time. They suffer from what Dr. Jack Kevorkian calls “a case of eternal ethics.”


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