The Long Goodbye: the Deaths of Nancy Cruzan Essay Example

it out, whatever the verdict was I just wanted him to read between the lines and just tell us.Finally, Joes read the important part stating that the hospital was directed to withdraw nutrition and hydration from Nancy according to our wishes as co-guardians.

The room fell silent no one really knew what to say. All the while I was thinking that this is just a small step and that with every step their will be someone there trying to push us backwards. Joe called our attorney to get his interpretation of the verdict. It troubled him that the Judge Teel described Nancy’s condition as “unresponsive and hopeless” with “no cognitive purpose for her except sound and perhaps pain. If Nancy feels pain then she is not in a persistent vegetative state.

We did not know what was going on behind the scenes, but later it would all come to light. Our case bypassed the appellate court of Missouri and headed straight to the Missouri Supreme Court, with a little assistance. Our case was scheduled for review in September, along with a case that has opposite opinions as ours. In other words, the parents of a young man named Phillip Radar, that was diagnosed as being brain dead, did not want to let their child go, but the hospital caring for him did. Phillip’s heart was beating even though he was brain dead.

Both of the cases were scheduled to be heard on the same morning in September, but on August 31st Phillip’s heart stopped and the effort to revive him was unsuccessful. His death left our case as the only one to be argued. After our day in

the Missouri Supreme Court all we could do was wait on the judgment to be handed down. The verdict was against us, and we cried and cried.

Our only option left was to petition the court to rehear our case and even that was denied. We discussed our other options and the only path was to the United States Supreme Court, and await their decision.