Legal Battle
After seeing Karen like this for several months, her family wanted her returned to her 'natural state'. Being devoutly Catholic, the Quinlan's sought the counsel from their church. They did not want to end Karen's life but to end the "extraordinary means", specifically the ventilator. Hospital officials, faced with threats from the Morris County prosecutor to bring homicide charges against them, joined with the Quinlan family in seeking an appropriate protective order from the courts, before allowing the respirator to be removed. The Quinlan family persevered, and in 1976 they appealed a ruling against them to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which ruled in their favor. 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.
Read more about this topic: Karen Ann Quinlan
Famous quotes containing the words legal and/or battle:
“No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“Up from the South at break of day,
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,
The affrighted air with a shudder bore,
Like a herald in haste, to the chieftain’s door,
The terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar,
Telling the battle was on once more,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.”
—Thomas Buchanan Read (1822–1872)