Word: karens
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...lawyers in the case have already set forth their widely divergent arguments. Paul Armstrong, the attorney who represents the Quinlans, acknowledges that there is no question about Karen's being alive. But he insists that her parents as guardians have a responsibility to look after her best interests. They also have a constitutional right to end her medical treatment on the basis of guarantees of religious freedom, protection against cruel and unusual punishment and the right to privacy as spelled out in the First, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. "The court," said Armstrong, "certainly can determine, given the form...
Daniel Coburn, a part-time public defender who represents Karen, disagrees. Although he has retreated slightly from his earlier claim that Karen could recover, he still insists that the court must protect her constitutional "right to life." New Jersey Deputy Attorney General David S. Baime takes a similar stand. Says he: "Although one has the right to hold religious beliefs, one does not have the right to practice them to the detriment of the state, society or the particular person...
...case take yet another tack. The hospital's lawyer, Theodore Einhorn, urges the court to leave the patient to her doctors, who are best qualified to decide how to treat her. Ralph Porzio, counsel for Morse and Javed, agrees. If the court authorizes an action that may end Karen's life, he says, "hundreds of thousands of people who are confined to institutions for the chronically ill" will be affected. They "may be in a condition similar to Karen's and you can terminate their lives...
...California at Los Angeles School of Public Health. Price believes that the Quinlan case has become a cause célèbre mainly because of doctors' growing concern over malpractice suits, which have increased significantly during the past decade. Says Dr. Laurens White of San Francisco: "Karen's luck ran out when the doctor put her on the respirator...Maybe, if she's lucky, she'll have a cardiac arrest...
...midst of all these uncertainties, Judge Muir gave only the barest hint of how he would rule. Asked by the Quinlans' attorney to visit Karen in the hospital, Muir declined. "I don't think it's appropriate for me to go see her," he replied. "I'm an ordinary human being with ordinary thoughts and ordinary emotions. My position in this case is to decide on the basis of the evidence presented. Emotion is an aspect that I cannot decide a case...