Nancy Cruzan Family’s Long Wait Goes on

For Joe Cruzan and his family, the legal fight to let their comatose daughter die is over. Now comes what could be years of waiting while she lies attached to a hospital feeding tube.

The U.S. Supreme Court barred the removal of her life-sustaining tube today in its first ruling in a “right-to-die” case.

To the family, the facts were painfully simple: They wanted death to become a reality for 32-year-old Nancy, who has been in a persistent vegetative state since a January, 1983, car crash. She is being kept alive by a surgically implanted feeding tube at the Missouri Rehabilitation Center in Mt. Vernon.

Doctors say she has no hope of recovery, but could remain alive for many years.

A voice on the telephone answering machine at the home of Joe and Joyce Cruzan in Carterville, Mo., said the family will have no response to the high court’s decision until they have had time to analyze the ruling.

In a statement, Gov. John Ashcroft said he is grateful the court backed the state’s position. He also said that “our thoughts and prayers remain with the Cruzan family.”

For Joe Cruzan, a sheet metal worker from Carterville, there’s no doubt about what his daughter would have wanted.

“She would say ‘Pull the plug, stop it. I don’t want to live like this. I have no dignity,’ ” Cruzan said in an interview last year.

“If she had her way, she’d like to come back like she was. That’s what I wish, but it’s not going to happen.”