Decision Making in End-of-life Circumstances :: Right To Die Death Essays

Decision Making in End-of-life CircumstancesTraveling home on a cold January eventide in 1983, a car loses control going around a slippery corner. The car spins, then flips, and the woman inside is thrown into a ditch thirty feet from where the car eventually comes to rest. She sustained numerous injuries and eventually stopped snorkeling. By the time paramedics arrived, she had not taken a breath for at least 15 legal proceeding, her blood pressure was 0 everywhere 0 and her pulse was 0 beats per minute This is what is known as a Code Blue (PBS Frontline). Twenty minutes had passed before becoming amounts of oxygen had reached her brain. (Permanent brain damage generally results after six minutes without oxygen.) The womans name is Nancy Cruzan and her story is considered one of the most authoritative milestones in the development of right to die policies in the United States because it is the commencement ceremony right to die case the Supreme Court ever heard. aft(pren ominal) extensive evaluation following her accident, Nancy was diagnosed with prob able brain damage increase by significant oxygen deprivation (Sisters of Leavenworth). Nancy remained in a lethargy for approximately three weeks and then progressed to an unconscious state in which she was able to let some nutrients orally. However, it soon became too difficult for Nancy to orally ingest the proper amount of nutrition, and it was necessary to implant a feeding and hydration vacuum tube. The tube was placed under consent from her father. Nancys eyes were open and she could incite her mouth, but she did not have an understanding of what she heard or saw and could not speak. Nancy was described as being in a eonian vegetative state (American Medical Association).Ten months after her tragic accident, Nancy was travel to a state hospital, where various treatments and rehabilitative efforts were shown to be unsuccessful. After the acknowledgement that Nancy would most probably nev er regain her mental faculties, her parents Joe and Joyce Cruzan asked for the cessation of the judgeship of medically assisted nutrition and hydration via the gastronomy tube. The hospital did not feel they were genuine to honor the familys request without court approval (Sisters of Leavenworth). The family was now go about with the emotional difficulties of requesting the removal of the same tube of which they had authorized the placement on the button a short time before.