In re Quinlan
CourtNew Jersey Supreme Court
Full case nameIn the matter of Karen Quinlan, an alleged incompetent
DecidedMarch 31, 1976
Citation(s)70 N.J. 10; 355 A.2d 647 (1976)
Court membership
Judge(s) sittingChief Justice Hughes, Justices Mountain, Sullivan, Pashman, Clifford and Schreiber and Judge Conford
Case opinions
Majority: Hughes (unanimous)

In re Quinlan (70 N.J. 10, 355 A.2d 647 (NJ 1976)) was a landmark[1] 1975 court case in the United States in which the parents of a woman who was kept alive by artificial means were allowed to order her removal from artificial ventilation.

Karen Ann Quinlan

Karen Ann Quinlan was 21 years old in 1975. After a night of drinking alcohol and ingesting tranquilizers, Quinlan lost consciousness and ceased breathing for two 15-minute periods. After it was determined that she was in a persistent vegetative state, her father, Joseph Quinlan, wished to remove her from the medical ventilator. Quinlan's primary physician and the hospital both refused.

Quinlan's father retained attorneys Paul W. Armstrong, a Morris County, New Jersey, Legal Aid attorney, and James M. Crowley, an associate at the New York City law firm of Shearman & Sterling with degrees in theology and Church law, and filed suit in the New Jersey Superior Court in Morris County, New Jersey, on September 12, 1975,[2] to be appointed as Quinlan's legal guardian so that he could act on her behalf. Armstrong would later become involved in the Nancy Cruzan case and later still become a judge.[3] Crowley is, as of 2017, legal counsel and advisor to several Vatican-related entities. Judge Armstrong is currently a Senior Policy Fellow and Judge in Residence at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

The Court denied his request on November 10, 1975.[4] Joseph Quinlan appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of New Jersey, which on March 31, 1976, held that he could authorize the cessation of ventilation; and that Saint Clare's Hospital was bound to proceed with this order.

Aftermath

After being removed from the ventilator, Quinlan continued to breathe until her death, in 1985, from pneumonia.[5]

The autopsy of Quinlan's brain found extensive damage to the bilateral thalamus.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Court and the End of Life - the Right to Privacy: Karen Ann Quinlan". Archived from the original on June 14, 2009. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
  2. ↑ "Couple Files Suit To End Life", Deseret News (Salt Lake City), September 13, 1975, p1
  3. ↑ Hutchinson, Dave (May 20, 2015). "Judge who fought landmark right-to-die cases leaves Somerset bench". Nj.com. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Must Choose Life, Judge Says in Quinlan Decision", Milwaukee Journal, November 11, 1975, p8
  5. ↑ McFadden, Robert (June 12, 1985). "Karen Ann Quinlan, 31, Dies; Focus of '76 Right to Die Case". New York Times.
  6. ↑ Kinney, Hannah C.; Korein, Julius; Panigrahy, Ashok; Dikkes, Pieter; Goode, Robert (May 26, 1994). "Neuropathological Findings in the Brain of Karen Ann Quinlan – The Role of the Thalamus in the Persistent Vegetative State". New England Journal of Medicine. 330 (21): 1469–1475. doi:10.1056/NEJM199405263302101. PMID 8164698.
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