In re Quinlan

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.

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)

Karen Ann Quinlan
Main article: 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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