Word: quinlans
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Regarding the ruling in the Karen Anne Quinlan case [Nov. 24], the next "logical" step would be for the New Jersey prosecutor to bring charges against Christian Scientists and any others who have had a relative die because they did not attempt to use all available mechanical and artificial means to keep the patient alive...
...eleven days, Superior Court Judge Robert Muir Jr. of Morris County, N.J., pondered the painful, unprecedented legal problem: Did the anguished parents of 21-year-old Karen Anne Quinlan have the right to switch off the respirator that had kept her alive since she fell into a deep coma in April? Last week Muir announced his decision. In a 44-page ruling, he noted sadly that he had to discount "the compassion, empathy, sympathy" he felt toward the Quinlan family. Both "judicial conscience and morality," he went on, told him that Karen's fate was being handled properly...
...victim is on the threshold of death" nor "humanitarian motives" can justify taking life. Dismissing as mere "semantics" such questions as whether pulling the plug would be an act of commission or omission, he ruled that the move "would result in the taking of the life of Karen Quinlan when the law of the state indicates that ... would be a homicide...
Weak Case. The judge rejected all of the arguments raised by Joseph Quinlan's lawyer. Karen's reported past statements that she would not want to have her life artificially prolonged were dismissed as "too theoretical." The constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment did not apply, Muir said, because medical treatment "where its goal is the sustenance of life is not something degrading, arbitrarily inflicted, unacceptable to contemporary society or unnecessary." As for the right of privacy, it had to be subordinate in this case to "the state's interest in preservation of life." Muir noted...
...equivalent of a life sentence for Karen felt the judge was far too cautious in dealing with the broad philosophical issues involved in the case. But most legal experts agreed that Muir had to rule as he did because of the weakness of the case presented by Joseph Quinlan's lawyer...