
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 26, 1990                   TAG: 9006260275
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times, Associated Press and staff reports
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

JUSTICES: PEOPLE HAVE RIGHT TO DIE

Eight members of the the Supreme Court, venturing for the first time into the sensitive "right to die" issue, said in a ruling Monday that a person whose wishes are clearly known has a constitutional right to the discontinuance of life-sustaining treatment.

In the case before them Monday, the justices ruled, by a vote of 5 to 4, that the state of Missouri can sustain the life of a woman, comatose for more than seven years, because her family has not shown by "clear and convincing evidence" that she would have wanted the treatment stopped.

Nevertheless, all the justices but one, Antonin Scalia, clearly endorsed the view that there is a constitutional right, as part of the "liberty" guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, to avoid unwanted medical treatment.

The amendment's due process clause prohibits the government from depriving any person of "life, liberty, or property without due process of law."

The decision was a defeat for the family of Nancy Cruzan, a 32-year-old woman who has been in a type of coma known as a persistent vegetative state since an automobile accident seven years ago. Her family had sought legal permission to disconnect the feeding tube that is providing the nutrients keeping her alive.

Annette Mariano, co-chairwoman for the Roanoke chapter of the Virginia Society for Human Life, said Monday that the case was "actually a right-to-kill" question in which the court decided that a person "could not be starved to death."

She praised the court's decision as one that "extended the right to life to all regardless of the quality of life."

The court held that when a permanently unconscious person has left no clear instructions, a state is free to carry out its interest in "the protection and preservation of human life" by denying a request by family members to terminate treatment.

There are some 10,000 people in the United States who are in the same type of coma as Cruzan, most of whom could live for many years if they are fed.

The court's ruling contained some good news for proponents of "living wills," which allow people to assure their lives are not prolonged against their wishes.

Forty-one states, including Virginia, living-will laws.

by CNB