Karen Quinlan Case Summary
Case: The Matter of Karen Quinlan, (1976).
Facts: A 911 dispatch call was received late on the night of April 15, 1975 by the Sussex County, New Jersey police. The call placed by friends of Karen Quinlan stated that she had “collapsed and then stopped breathing”, it was reported to physicians that Karen was apneic on 2 separate occasions that possibly lasted up to 15 minutes. Friends of Karen Ann Quinlan, who at the time was 21, testified that she had been fasting for “several days”, then after returning home from a party she consumed prescription medication (Valium) and drank a significant amount of alcohol. Although doctors were able to resuscitate Karen, she suffered brain damage from the lack of oxygen. This left Karen in a coma that physicians diagnosed as a persistent vegetative state (pvs). Furthermore, by April 16, 1975, physicians and nurses stated that Karen was posturing in a state known as decorticate. Decorticate is defined “as the body’s posture when the cortex of the brain is no longer able to function with the rest of the body. In this state the body’s extremities are all drawn into the core of the body,” ("Decorticate Posture," 2015). At the time of the of request Karen weight 115lbs, she remained on the respiratory (under the assumption she no longer had the ability to breath on her own) a foley …show more content…
Brain death, the doctor argued, necessarily involves the death of both of these. While the doctors saw no hope of Karen's returning to cognitive functioning (to use of the higher brain), they believed that the vegetative part continued to operate (University of Oklahoma,
Facts: A 911 dispatch call was received late on the night of April 15, 1975 by the Sussex County, New Jersey police. The call placed by friends of Karen Quinlan stated that she had “collapsed and then stopped breathing”, it was reported to physicians that Karen was apneic on 2 separate occasions that possibly lasted up to 15 minutes. Friends of Karen Ann Quinlan, who at the time was 21, testified that she had been fasting for “several days”, then after returning home from a party she consumed prescription medication (Valium) and drank a significant amount of alcohol. Although doctors were able to resuscitate Karen, she suffered brain damage from the lack of oxygen. This left Karen in a coma that physicians diagnosed as a persistent vegetative state (pvs). Furthermore, by April 16, 1975, physicians and nurses stated that Karen was posturing in a state known as decorticate. Decorticate is defined “as the body’s posture when the cortex of the brain is no longer able to function with the rest of the body. In this state the body’s extremities are all drawn into the core of the body,” ("Decorticate Posture," 2015). At the time of the of request Karen weight 115lbs, she remained on the respiratory (under the assumption she no longer had the ability to breath on her own) a foley …show more content…
Brain death, the doctor argued, necessarily involves the death of both of these. While the doctors saw no hope of Karen's returning to cognitive functioning (to use of the higher brain), they believed that the vegetative part continued to operate (University of Oklahoma,