Karen Ann Quinlan
Encyclopedia : K : KA : KAR : Karen Ann Quinlan
Karen Ann Quinlan (March 29, 1954–June 11, 1985) was an important figure in the history of the right to die debate. Her case raised important questions in bioethics, euthanasia, legal guardianship and civil rights.
In April 1975, Quinlan went on a radical diet, reportedly in order to fit into a dress that she had bought. On April 15, having eaten nothing but a few slices of bread over a period of roughly 48 hours, she attended a party at a friend's house. After consuming alcohol and Valium tranquilizers, Quinlan told her friends that she was feeling dizzy and went off to lie down on her friend's bed. She was found a while later by partygoers, unconscious and not breathing. She suffered irreversible brain damage after experiencing an extended period of respiratory failure, and subsequently was placed on a ventilator in hospital. No precise cause of her respiratory failure has been given, although her mother has said that the doctors' best guess was that she fell asleep or passed out and choked on her own vomit.
Her parents wanted to have her taken off the respirator that was sustaining her, but hospital officials refused. In 1976, the Quinlans took their case to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which sided with her parents in its decision. When she was taken off the respirator, Quinlan surprised many by continuing to breathe unaided, and was fed by artificial nutrition for nine more years. A TV movie was made about Karen Ann, with Piper Laurie and Brian Keith playing her parents. She lived in a persistent vegetative state until her death from pneumonia in 1985.
Books
- Karen Ann: The Quinlans tell their story by Joseph Quinlan (1977) ISBN 0385126662
- My Joy, My Sorrow: Karen Ann's Mother Remembers by Julia Duane Quinlan (2005) ISBN 0867166630
- The Right To Die"*
See also
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.