Cruzan’s Father Says Family Gave Her Gift of Death

Nancy Cruzan’s family gave her “the gift of freedom” by disconnecting her feeding tube and allowing her to die after nearly eight years in a vegetative state, her father said Friday at her funeral.

About 170 relatives and friends gathered at a chapel to bid Cruzan goodby. She was buried in Carterville, north of her southwest Missouri hometown of Joplin.

“Today, as the protester’s sign says, we give Nancy the gift of death--an unconditional gift of love that sets her free from this twisted body that no longer serves her, a gift I know she will treasure above all the others, the gift of freedom,” her father, Joe Cruzan, said in a statement read by the family minister.

Cruzan, 33, died Wednesday at Missouri Rehabilitation Center in Mt. Vernon, 12 days after her family obtained court permission to disconnect the feeding tube that kept her alive.

The family’s legal efforts to end her life led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on June 25 that said patients like Cruzan could be allowed to die if there were “clear and convincing” evidence that that was their wish.

Cruzan had been in a persistent vegetative state after suffering severe brain damage in a 1983 car accident. Former co-workers said it was her desire to die rather than live in such a state.

Cruzan’s father said requests for living wills, which allow adults to decide whether they want to be kept alive by artificial means, increased 500-fold since her case got national attention.

“I believe that these facts alone speak to the legacy that Nancy left us,” he said. “She did not die in vain.”

Those opposed to euthanasia filed court petitions and picketed the hospital to have Cruzan’s feeding tube reconnected.