Nancy Beth Cruzan's case

Abstract

Euthanasia is a very controversial area of bioethics and is part of an ongoing debate that is taking piace at various levels: medicai, bioethical, legal and massmedia. The paper deals with one of the most famous cases of euthanasia: the case of Nancy Cruzan, the american woman who, after a serious accident in 1983, fell into a persistent vegetative state and was attached to life support machines until her death in 1990. She died because her relatives asked for her to be taken off the life support equipment and a judge agreed to the request. After a historical introduction to this case, the paper looks into the legai procedure that preceeded the Cruzan case and it examines the Catholic magisterial statements regarding euthanasia and the theological debate. The paper also deals with the ethical evaluation of euthanasia and discusses a series of questions: whether detaching the nutrition/hydratation is euthanasia; whether to continue providing nutrition/hydratation is therapeutic obstinacy; whether providing nutrition/hydratation is medicai treatment or care; the cost/benefit ratio, the value of the patient's wish and the role of the relatives; the value of life. The conclusion of the paper is that in the Cruzan case the opinions and personal interest were preferred rather than truth. Eloquent sign of it is the silence followed to Nancy's death.