Matter of O'Connor, 1988 was a
court case
A legal case is in a general sense a dispute between opposing parties which may be resolved by a court, or by some equivalent legal process. A legal case is typically based on either civil or criminal law. In most legal cases there are one or mor ...
brought before the
New York Court of Appeals
The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...
.
Mary O'Connor
Mary O'Connor was a 77-year-old woman who had experienced strokes in 1985, and
was admitted to
Westchester County Medical Center. She suffered from the loss of her gag reflex, which made it impossible for her to swallow food.
Because O'Connor was unresponsive, physicians and her daughters took control of her care.
According to her daughters, although she was unable to feed herself, she did not want to be kept alive through artificial means.
Her physicians noted that treatment was necessary to preserve her life. They asked the ethics committee for a recommendation, as they felt that it was unethical to deny her the necessary life-preserving treatment.
Court case
The daughters, (both nurses) argued successfully in two lower courts, that their mother did not wish to kept alive by such artificial means.
An appeal reversed the two lower-court decisions which had been found in favor of the daughters.
The case was then referred to the New York Court of Appeals. The judge was Chief Judge
Sol Wachtler
Solomon "Sol" Wachtler (born April 29, 1930) is an American lawyer and Republican politician from New York. He was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1985 to 1992. Wachtler's most famous quote, made shortly after his appointment as ...
, and a four judge majority ruled.
The Court noted that O'Connor was conscious and able to answer questions.
The Court's decision was that O'Connor had not stated clearly that she "had made a firm and settled commitment, while competent, to decline this type of medical assistance".
The court used the ruling of an older case, ''
In re Storar''
[{{Cite web, url=https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/108262/in-re-stolar/, title=In Re Stolar, 401 U.S. 23, 91 S. Ct. 713, 27 L. Ed. 2d 657, 1971 U.S. LEXIS 82 – CourtListener.com, website=CourtListener, language=en, access-date=2018-10-29] to "deny her the refusal" of receiving this care.
References
New York Court of Appeals