Ann Quinlan Views
Karen Ann Quinlan became the first legal case in what would later be known as the right-to-die movement. Her case highlighted the widening chasm between medical technology and what is considered a good death. For the first time, many Americans found themselves thinking about important decisions that need to be made at the end of life.
The Quinlan's legal case set precedent and established a patient's right to refuse medical care and control his or her own medical treatment. Because of Karen Ann Quinlan, changes were made in the way health care decisions are made, including the creation of ethics committees in hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices, the creation of advance directives, and the invention of Health Care Proxies.
When she was 21, Quinlan became unconscious after arriving home from a party. She had consumed diazepam, dextropropoxyphene, and alcohol. After she collapsed and stopped breathing twice for 15 minutes or more, the paramedics arrived and took Karen Ann to the hospital, where she lapsed into a persistent vegetative state. After she was kept alive on a ventilator for several months without improvement, her parents requested the hospital discontinue active care and allow her to die. The hospital refused, and the subsequent legal battles made newspaper headlines and set significant precedents. The tribunal eventually ruled in her parents' favor.
Karen Ann Quinlan was born on March 29, 1954, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to a young unmarried mother of Irish American ancestry. A few weeks later, she was adopted by Joseph and Julia Quinlan, devout Roman Catholics who lived in Landing, New Jersey. Julia and Joseph produced a daughter, Mary Ellen, in 1956, and a son, John, in 1957.[1]
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