As a nursing student, I had studied the progress of medical science. I was aware of how the development of new drugs, treatments, life-sustaining machines, and the provision of health education, with emphasis on prevention of disease, had resulted in lengthening life expectancy.
It was now possible to keep patients alive. In some cases, even when the person had little or no brain activity. I remember the first publicized case that involved a patient like this because it happened when I was still in nursing school.
In 1975, a 21-year-old woman named Karen Ann Quinlan collapsed after ingesting a combination of alcohol and tranquilizers while attending a party. She suffered a complete respiratory arrest (all breathing stopped). Doctors were able to save her life, but she had sustained permanent brain damage that left her in a "persistent vegetative state." She was unable to breathe without a respirator and had to be fed through a feeding tube.
Ms. Quinlan's family battled in the courts for the right to remove their daughter from life support equipment. The family was granted permission by the courts, but Karen continued to breathe on her own after the respirator was unplugged. She died in 1985 after being in a coma for almost 10 years.
The Quinlan case pointed out the range of unsettled issues that our society would have to deal with concerning the end of life . The populace seems to be more comfortable with passive approaches that respected a terminal patient's request for no aggressive medical interventions, rather than actively accelerating death as in assisted suicide.
The controversy stemmed from the difference of opinions between the individual's right to decide about their own bodies, the final moments of their life, and society's broad concerns for protecting life.
I want to present information on this topic from all perspectives, but since the subjects to cover are quite extensive and have complicated medical terminology, highly charged ethical and moral issues, and long lists of legal court battles and decisions, I need to lay down some sort of framework. Let's start with considering the following question: "What would I do, if I preferred not to be kept alive, if I had no way of recovering?"
