Karen Ann Quinlan Case: Right to Die and End-of-Life Ethics

Facts and Court Holdings

Karen Ann Quinlan attracted national attention following her slipping into a coma in 1975. The Quinlan case remains a key reference point in discussions revolving around the right to die. According to Drane (1994), Ms. Quinlan fell into a coma on the night of April 15, 1975, following an evening birthday party for one of her friends. It was reported that during the party, Quinlan consumed a cocktail of alcoholic beverages. In addition to alcohol, it was also reported that she took a tranquilizer — Valium specifically — (Drane, 1994). She promptly slipped into a coma. Her friends soon realized she was not breathing and called an ambulance, which rushed her to Newton Memorial Hospital. Efforts to resuscitate Quinlan were unsuccessful, and after it became apparent that her coma was irreversible, she was transferred to another medical facility, St. Clare's in Danville.

After some time, Quinlan was declared to be in a persistent vegetative state. Her condition could not be reversed. It was following this declaration that her parents sought to intervene and end what they saw as her unnecessary suffering. According to Quinlan's parents, the chances of their daughter recovering from the state she was in were slim at best. To end her suffering, the parents made a private request to doctors at St. Clare's that the machines being used to sustain Quinlan be switched off (Rosenthal, 2018). When doctors at the healthcare facility refused to heed their request, Quinlan's parents sought the intervention of the court. This move set the stage for an intense national debate on the question of life and death, and the right to die.

In September 1975, Quinlan's parents filed a suit seeking termination of further attempts to prolong their daughter's life using extraordinary means. However, a month after the suit was filed, the request was denied by a Superior Court judge in Morristown, New Jersey (Rosenthal, 2018). According to Rosenthal (2018), the judge argued that the decision to remove Quinlan from the ventilator was not supported by her doctors. The judge made a finding that the decision at hand was more medical than judicial. Rosenthal (2018) further notes that it was also found that any move to disconnect the respirator would, in this particular case, contravene the homicide statutes of the State of New Jersey.

The loss of the petition did not deter Quinlan's parents from their resolve to end what they considered the unnecessary suffering of their daughter. They therefore moved to the New Jersey Supreme Court. In what came to be seen as a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court granted the wish of Quinlan's parents, arguing in part that Quinlan ought not to endure that which appeared unendurable. More specifically, the court "held a new interpretation of the right of privacy, and that Miss Quinlan's interest in having her life-support systems disconnected exceeded the state's interest in preserving life, so long as medical authorities saw 'no reasonable possibility' that she would recover" (Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice, 2019). Furthermore, the court made a finding that if Quinlan's death did result from the disconnection of the respirator, her death would be a consequence of natural causes already in progress. Under such circumstances, the course of action adopted by the doctors would not constitute homicide, and the doctors would therefore not be held criminally liable (Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice, 2019). It was also determined that Quinlan's condition meant that her father held the authority to make decisions on her behalf, removing the court and doctors from that role.

In the end, Quinlan was weaned from the respirator. She survived for close to a decade, though her condition and wellbeing deteriorated over time. She died on June 11, 1985. It is notable that at the time Quinlan was admitted to hospital she weighed 115 pounds, but at the time of her death she weighed only 65 pounds (Drane, 1994). Her death was attributed to pneumonia, which triggered respiratory failure. Drane (1994) points out that her family had already requested that the hospital make no attempt to revive her, viewing any such attempt as unnatural, unnecessary, and inappropriate.

References

Drane, J. F. (1994). Clinical Bioethics: Theory and Practice in Medical Ethical Decision-Making. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield.

Holland, S., Kitzinger, C., & Kitzinger, J. (2014). Death, treatment decisions and the permanent vegetative state: Evidence from families and experts. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 17(3), 413–423.

Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice. (2019). The story of Karen Ann Quinlan made headlines! Retrieved from https://www.karenannquinlanhospice.org/about/history/

Mizzoni, J. (2011). Ethics: The Basics. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Rosenthal, M. S. (2018). Clinical Ethics on Film: A Guide for Medical Educators. New York, NY: Springer.

Singer, P. (2013). A Companion to Ethics. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.