Nancy Cruzan and The Right to Die (A FAMILY TRAGEDY)

Nancy Cruzan, a Carterville, Missouri woman, suffered a devastating brain injury in a 1983 car crash and never regained consciousness. Five years after her accident her parents, Joe and Joyce Cruzan requested the removal of her feeding tube leading to a three year legal battle that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court and was the first right to die case the court agreed to hear.This video focuses on the experiences of the Cruzan family. I visited the abandoned Missouri Rehabilitation Center where Nancy died, Scheiber Foods where she worked, and Elm road the site of her accident. (Exterior only) There is a link to videos below of explorers who went inside.

Further reading:

Podcast featuring Nancy’s sister and her nieces (from 2010)

http://practicalbioethics.blogspot.com/2010/11/remembering-nancy-cruzan-20-years-later.html

Text of the Supreme Court opinion.

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/497/261/

Panel featuring William Colby, the Cruzan family attorney, filmed shortly after the 2005 Terri Schiavo case.

https://youtu.be/TY9fIBg73XE

Urban explorers inside the Missouri Rehabilitation Center. Do not attempt! But for a view inside, here you go.

https://youtu.be/RsQ7iiYCpKk

https://youtu.be/T_0jTykwgx4

#nancycruzan
#supremecourt #righttodie