Nancy Cruzan

In the awful quiet that can settle over an accident scene, an emergency rescue squad worked swiftly, efficiently to save Nancy Beth Cruzan's life. Her breathing had stopped; there was no detectable heartbeat. But death did not come at that Missouri roadside scene in the still of the night: Ms. Cruzan was resuscitated.Last week, nearly eight years later, with all of her privacy gone and with very little left for her family, Nancy Cruzan died in a Missouri hospital. It was one of the most public deaths in years, a countdown monitored by much of the nation for 12 days.

MOST OF US might never have heard of Terri Schiavo if she had put her medical wishes in writing. Now she has become a household name after Congress and the president entered the legal battle to prolong her life against her husband's insistence that she would have preferred to die rather than live with severe brain damage. The emotional case in Florida has many people across the country scrambling to get documents in place to spell out their wishes on life-sustaining treatment. The documents can go a long way toward helping family members who must make hard choices on behalf of loved ones who are unable to speak for themselves.

As Nancy Cruzan is laid to rest at last and her family regains its privacy, it's worth reviewing the landmark case that resulted in the Supreme Court's first ruling on the right to die.Almost eight years after an automobile accident left Cruzan permanently unconscious, a county probate judge declared on Dec. 14 that her parents, Joe and Joyce Cruzan, had presented clear and convincing evidence that their daughter would not have wanted to be kept alive in...

Joe Cruzan, 62, whose four-year battle to stop life support for his daughter, Nancy, sparked a national right-to-die debate, was found dead Saturday in Carterville, Mo., in an apparent suicide, police and family said. He was found hanged in his home by his wife, Joyce.Nancy Cruzan suffered permanent brain damage in a 1983 accident, leaving her in a vegetative state. Doctors said she could have lived 30 or 40 years.More than four years after the accident, Mr. Cruzan, a sheet-metal worker, and his wife went to court to get permission to remove their daughter's feeding tube, even as opponents sought to keep the lifeline connected.

MOUNT VERNON, Mo. (AP) -- The director of the hospital where Nancy Cruzan died won a court order against the father of another patient who wants to remove his brain-damaged daughter's feeding tube.Pete Busalacchi wants to transfer his 20-year-old daughter, Christine, from the Missouri Rehabilitation Center to Minnesota, where she could die under a state provision that recognizes ethical decisions by doctors.The hospital's director fought the move, claiming that Busalacchi has a better chance of recovering than Cruzan did.Cruzan died at the Missouri hospital Dec. 26 after her parents won a landmark court battle to have her feeding tube disconnected.

DEATH DID NOT come gently to Nancy Cruzan. It took almost eight years from the car accident that left her unconscious to the death certificate. It took almost three years from the time her parents asked to end treatment to the time a Missouri court agreed. It took 12 days from the moment the feeding tube was removed to the moment she stopped breathing.The last week in the life of the young woman whose body was locked in a fetal position and whose mind was permanently obliterated, was not easy either.

Joe Cruzan, 62, whose four-year battle to stop life support for his daughter, Nancy, sparked a national right-to-die debate, was found dead Saturday in Carterville, Mo., in an apparent suicide, police and family said. He was found hanged in his home by his wife, Joyce.Nancy Cruzan suffered permanent brain damage in a 1983 accident, leaving her in a vegetative state. Doctors said she could have lived 30 or 40 years.More than four years after the accident, Mr. Cruzan, a sheet-metal worker, and his wife went to court to get permission to remove their daughter's feeding tube, even as opponents sought to keep the lifeline connected.

In California, a physician who is unwilling to comply with a terminally ill patient's wish to be allowed to die must transfer the patient. Failure to do so constitutes unprofessional conduct.In Florida, a physician unwilling to comply with a patient's declared intent must make only a "reasonable effort" to transfer the patient.In Alaska, however, an attending physician who fails to comply with a patient's properly declared wish not to have his or her life artificially prolonged has no right to be paid for services after the point at which those wishes should have been honored.

The confirmation hearings for Judge David Souter have drawn attention once again to the impact Supreme Court decisions have on all our lives. Few justices have stirred more debate about the court's role than the man Souter is replacing, Justice William J. Brennan.Politics aside, one trait that characterized many of Brennan's opinions was a concern for the human side of the difficult dilemmas that merit Supreme Court consideration. Nowhere was that trait more evident than in Brennan's eloquent dissent in Cruzan vs. Harmon this past June, the court's first ruling in a right-to-die case.

At long last, the ordeal of the Cruzan family of Missouri has ended; Nancy Cruzan is legally dead.In her family's view, Nancy has been dead since 1983, when an automobile accident left a vibrant young woman of 25 in an irreversibly comatose state. Her case came to national attention because Missouri had one of the nation's most stringent standards for determining what an incompetent patient's decision would be in regard to life-prolonging medical care.She left no written indication of her wishes, and the testimony of close associates was not deemed "clear and convincing" evidence of what she would want done.

In California, a physician who is unwilling to comply with a terminally ill patient's wish to be allowed to die must transfer the patient. Failure to do so constitutes unprofessional conduct.In Florida, a physician unwilling to comply with a patient's declared intent must make only a "reasonable effort" to transfer the patient.In Alaska, however, an attending physician who fails to comply with a patient's properly declared wish not to have his or her life artificially prolonged has no right to be paid for services after the point at which those wishes should have been honored.

There is a father in Missouri who wants to take his daughter shopping. The trip he has in mind is a grim one. He wants to find a doctor and a state that might allow her to die.The father is Peter Busalacchi. The daughter is Christine, the second most-famous patient in the place where Nancy Cruzan once lay. It took a Supreme Court decision and then some, before Nancy Cruzan won the ''right to die.'' The feeding tube was removed only after her family proved that the young woman had left ''clear and convincing evidence'' that she wouldn't want to live in a persistent vegetative state.

As Nancy Cruzan is laid to rest at last and her family regains its privacy, it's worth reviewing the landmark case that resulted in the Supreme Court's first ruling on the right to die.Almost eight years after an automobile accident left Cruzan permanently unconscious, a county probate judge declared on Dec. 14 that her parents, Joe and Joyce Cruzan, had presented clear and convincing evidence that their daughter would not have wanted to be kept alive in...

MOUNT VERNON, Mo. (AP) -- The director of the hospital where Nancy Cruzan died won a court order against the father of another patient who wants to remove his brain-damaged daughter's feeding tube.Pete Busalacchi wants to transfer his 20-year-old daughter, Christine, from the Missouri Rehabilitation Center to Minnesota, where she could die under a state provision that recognizes ethical decisions by doctors.The hospital's director fought the move, claiming that Busalacchi has a better chance of recovering than Cruzan did.Cruzan died at the Missouri hospital Dec. 26 after her parents won a landmark court battle to have her feeding tube disconnected.

In the awful quiet that can settle over an accident scene, an emergency rescue squad worked swiftly, efficiently to save Nancy Beth Cruzan's life. Her breathing had stopped; there was no detectable heartbeat. But death did not come at that Missouri roadside scene in the still of the night: Ms. Cruzan was resuscitated.Last week, nearly eight years later, with all of her privacy gone and with very little left for her family, Nancy Cruzan died in a Missouri hospital. It was one of the most public deaths in years, a countdown monitored by much of the nation for 12 days.

DEATH DID NOT come gently to Nancy Cruzan. It took almost eight years from the car accident that left her unconscious to the death certificate. It took almost three years from the time her parents asked to end treatment to the time a Missouri court agreed. It took 12 days from the moment the feeding tube was removed to the moment she stopped breathing.The last week in the life of the young woman whose body was locked in a fetal position and whose mind was permanently obliterated, was not easy either.

There is a father in Missouri who wants to take his daughter shopping. The trip he has in mind is a grim one. He wants to find a doctor and a state that might allow her to die.The father is Peter Busalacchi. The daughter is Christine, the second most-famous patient in the place where Nancy Cruzan once lay. It took a Supreme Court decision and then some, before Nancy Cruzan won the ''right to die.'' The feeding tube was removed only after her family proved that the young woman had left ''clear and convincing evidence'' that she wouldn't want to live in a persistent vegetative state.

IS ANYBODY surprised that the death vigil for the woman who became a symbol of the right to die was marred by protesters holding a vigil for her right to life?The protesters arrived this week at the Missouri Rehabilitation Center, where on Dec. 14 the feeding tube that was keeping Nancy Cruzan alive had been removed. Earlier that day, a county probate judge had ruled that new evidence presented by the Cruzan family fulfilled Missouri's law requiring "clear and convincing" evidence for determining what an incompetent patient's wishes would be.That law was upheld by the Supreme Court last summer, but in the ruling the court also affirmed that Americans do have a right to refuse life-prolonging medical treatment -- in other words, there is a "right to die."

At long last, the ordeal of the Cruzan family of Missouri has ended; Nancy Cruzan is legally dead.In her family's view, Nancy has been dead since 1983, when an automobile accident left a vibrant young woman of 25 in an irreversibly comatose state. Her case came to national attention because Missouri had one of the nation's most stringent standards for determining what an incompetent patient's decision would be in regard to life-prolonging medical care.She left no written indication of her wishes, and the testimony of close associates was not deemed "clear and convincing" evidence of what she would want done.

Eight years after the auto crash that left her in a vegetative state, six months after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on her right to die and 12 days after her parents won their fight to remove the feeding tube that was keeping her alive, Nancy Beth **TC Cruzan died early yesterday at the age of 33 in Mount Vernon, Mo., with her family at her bedside.Miss Cruzan's case became the centerpiece of a bitter debate about how and when families can decide to withdraw nourishment or medical treatment to bring about the death of an incapacitated loved one.That debate continued yesterday, even as the final chapter of the Cruzan case had been written.