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Missouri Department of Health Cruzan v. Director - Significance, The Accident, Who Decides?, Defining Life, Court Rejects Parents' Appeal, Discontinuance Of Life-support V. Assisted Suicide

decision william petitioner die

Petitioner

Nancy Beth Cruzan, by her parents and co-guardians, Lester L. Cruzan, et ux.

Respondent

Director, Missouri Department of Health, et al.

Petitioner's Claim

That the state of Missouri had no authority to interfere with the parents' wish to remove the tube that supplied food and water to Nancy Cruzan.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioner

William H. Colby

Chief Lawyer for Respondent

Robert L. Presson, Attorney General of Missouri

Justices for the Court

Anthony M. Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor, William H. Rehnquist (writing for the Court), Antonin Scalia, Byron R. White

Justices Dissenting

Harry A. Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, John Paul Stevens

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

25 June 1990

Decision

The Court upheld the Missouri State Supreme Court's decision rejecting the Cruzans' petition to withdraw food and water from their daughter.

Related Cases

  • In the Matter of Quinlan, 355 A.2d 647 (1976).
  • Compassion In Dying v. State of Washington, 49 F.3d 586 (1995).

Sources

Constitutional Law: Thirteenth Edition New York City, NY: The Foundation Press Inc., 1997.

Further Readings

  • Kinsley, Michael. "To Be Or Not to Be." New Republic, 27 November 1989, p. 6.
  • "Right-to-Die Case Argued." Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 9 December 1989, p. 3370.
  • Sanders, Alain L. "Whose Right to Die?" Time, 11 December 1990, p. 80.
  • Urofsky, Melvin I. Letting Go: Death, Dying, and the Law. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993.

Additional Topics

Missouri Department of Health Cruzan v. Director - Significance

Missouri Department of Health Cruzan v. Director - The Accident

Nancy Beth Cruzan was 25 years old when her car slid out of control on an icy Missouri road and rolled over one January night in 1983. Ejected from the car, she landed in a ditch, and by the time an ambulance arrived and restored vital signs, her brain had been without necessary oxygen for an estimated 12 to 14 minutes; brain damage occurs after six minutes without oxygen. This left her in what do…

Missouri Department of Health Cruzan v. Director - Who Decides?

It was the first time the High Court had entered into the right-to-die question, treading waters customarily the domain of theologians and philosophers. (The question had arisen in the courts before, most notably with In the Matter of Quinlan (1976), but the High Court had declined to review the New Jersey State Supreme Court decision.) Conservatives and the spiritually devout offered the argument…

Missouri Department of Health Cruzan v. Director - Defining Life

Another side of the Cruzan question concerned advances in medical technology late in the twentieth century. Medical advances created machines that could perform essential respiratory and cardiac functions. In such situations, some argue, a clearer definition of "life" should be put forward--is the person a thinking, viable being, capable of surviving with no outside assistance? Countering that arg…

Missouri Department of Health Cruzan v. Director - Court Rejects Parents' Appeal

Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health was argued in December of 1989 and seven months later, Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered a majority opinion supporting the 5-4 decision of the Missouri Supreme Court, declaring that the state did indeed have the right to preserve life at all costs. Rehnquist noted in his opinion that the oral evidence presented to the Court by Cruzan's roommate, re…

Missouri Department of Health Cruzan v. Director - Discontinuance Of Life-support V. Assisted Suicide

The right to refuse medical treatment is a constitutionally protected liberty interest. Unlike assisted suicide, it lacks the potential element of abuse because patients can establish future previsions to discontinue life support systems such as a living will. Additionally, if the patient is unable to articulate his views or has not signed a living will, family members can express the patient's de…

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over 2 years ago

Alayna

You should include the Justices opinions.