The Region - News from May 21, 1987

Anna Hirth, the 92-year-old woman at the center of a controversial “right to die” case, was removed from the care of the doctor and nursing home staff who refused to withdraw her feeding tube. In papers filed with the 4th District Court of Appeal, a lawyer for the woman’s family informed the court that Hirth “is no longer located in San Diego County” and “is no longer a patient of . . . Dr. Allen Jay.” Hirth’s daughter, Helen Gary, declined to discuss her mother’s whereabouts or even whether she remains alive. The notification came a month after a San Diego County Superior Court judge ruled that if Gary wanted to exercise her mother’s “right to die,” she should find another doctor and a health facility willing to remove the feeding tube.