The Nation - News from March 29, 1989

A man convicted in an assault that left another man in a coma cannot prevent the victim’s mother from discontinuing her son’s life-support system, a probate judge ruled in Portland, Me. Noel Pagan, 26, of Wellesley, Mass., who served a three-year jail term for his assault conviction, sought to block the death of Mark Weaver, 25, because he fears murder charges could be brought if Weaver dies. Doctors say Weaver has been in a “persistent vegetative state” since 1985, when Pagan stabbed him in the neck during a fight in Lewiston. Cumberland County Probate Judge Dana Childs ruled that Pagan’s petition was filed out of self-interest and, for that reason, he had no standing with the court.