Judge Rejects Appeal to Let Woman, 92, Die

A Superior Court judge Thursday set March 9 for the trial in the case of Anna Hirth, a comatose 92-year-old La Mesa resident whose daughter is seeking permission to terminate life-sustaining medical care.

After a lengthy hearing, Judge Milton Milkes denied a request by an attorney for the daughter, Helen Gary, that he order a feeding tube removed from the elderly woman, a step that would almost certainly result in Hirth’s death.

Although Gary and other relatives of Hirth insist the woman would not wish to be kept alive in her present vegetative state, Milkes said at an earlier hearing that he believed it would be premature to cut off treatment. The judge had sought additional information on Hirth’s wishes and her medical condition before making a ruling.

Gary’s attorney, the noted right-to-die advocate Richard Scott of Santa Monica, criticized the judge’s position, saying Milkes has ignored “exquisitely clear” legal precedent in California and other states in refusing to grant Gary’s request that care for her mother be ended.

“We have found not one single person who had a single word--not a whisper--contradicting what Mrs. Hirth’s daughters and other living relatives have stated” about her wishes, Scott said.

Hirth, a victim of Alzheimer’s disease for several years, fell into a coma in February after choking on some food. When Hirth’s physician refused a request by family members that he take steps to allow her to die, Gary contacted Scott, who also represents Elizabeth Bouvia, a Los Angeles-area woman with cerebral palsy who last year won the right to refuse force feeding.

The Hacienda de La Mesa nursing home and Hirth’s San Diego physician, Dr. Allen Jay, oppose Gary’s request.