Family’s Way Cleared in Right-to-Die Case

A Virginia judge denied Gov. Jim Gilmore’s eleventh-hour attempt Wednesday night to prevent the family of a comatose man from removing the feeding tube that has kept him alive for 3 1/2 years. Hugh Finn’s family had planned to remove the tube after an appeals deadline expired at midnight. State attorneys rushed to file papers in Prince William Circuit Court in Manassas a little more than an hour before the deadline. Prince William Circuit Judge Frank Hoss Jr. denied the appeal. Doctors said Finn would likely die within weeks if the tube is removed. Finn ruptured his aorta in a traffic accident in March 1995.