| This dissertation examined national attitudes about withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatments, court rulings related to a patient's right-to-die, and the application of Virginia's Health Care Decisions Act. A case study approach focused on the decision to terminate life support for Hugh Finn, a 44 year old man in a persistent vegetative state with no chance of recovery. In 1998, his spouse and legal guardian, acting under the authority granted in the Virginia Health Care Decisions Act, asked his doctor to remove the feeding tubes that were keeping him alive. This decision and the subsequent lawsuit brought by then Governor of Virginia, James S. Gilmore, III, to stop the doctor from removing the tubes, reflect the national debate over the right-to-die.;Virginia's Health Care Decisions Act is based upon numerous court cases which have addressed the issues surrounding the right to refuse treatment. In the case of Karen Ann Quinlan, for example, the court ruled that individuals have a constitutional right to privacy and that right includes the ability to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. The court also ruled that a surrogate can exercise this right for an incompetent patient. In the case of Nancy Cruzan, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state's have a right to establish procedural safeguards for comatose patients. It affirmed, however, a constitutionally protected right to refuse medical treatment.;The thesis of this dissertation is that when the Governor used his parens patriae authority to attempt to override Virginia's Health Care Decisions Act, he put his personal values and political expediency ahead of the best interests of Hugh Finn. Virginia's Health Care Decisions Act was passed by the General Assembly in 1983 and specifically grants Virginians the right to ask their physician to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatments and to appoint a surrogate to make decisions on their behalf.;Finally, this dissertation encourages citizens to discuss their wishes about care and treatment at the end of life with their family and physicians, and to carefully craft an advance directive which provides adequate directions to their family and physicians in order to avoid Hugh Finn's fate. |
