Bouvia Wants Food Tube Pulled

Elizabeth Bouvia, the quadriplegic cerebral-palsy victim who lost a legal battle to be allowed to starve to death two years ago, filed suit today for a court order prohibiting a Lancaster hospital from continuing to force-feed her against her will.

The Los Angeles Superior Court suit contends that the 28-year-old woman no longer has any intention of self-starvation and “has done all she could to consume an adequate amount of nutrition.” Nevertheless, on Jan. 16 the medical staff “resorted to the ‘massively-intrusive’ remedy” of placing a nasogastric tube through her nostril in order to force feed her, her suit claims, and justified this action by stating the hospital “cannot allow this woman to die in their facility.”