Virginia High Court Rules Man May Be Allowed to Die

A legal battle over a severely brain-damaged man’s right to die ended Friday, when the Virginia Supreme Court rejected Gov. James S. Gilmore’s attempts to have the patient’s feeding tube reinserted.

In an emergency ruling, the court said withholding nutrition from 44-year-old Hugh Finn merely permits the natural process of dying and is not a mercy killing, which would be illegal in Virginia.

Without the tube, Finn will become dehydrated and die within a couple of weeks, said Dr. Robin Merlino, medical director at Annaburg Manor Nursing Home in Manassas. Finn has been there since 1996.

The court ruled a day after a tube through which Finn had received food and water was removed at the request of his wife, Michele, who had to wage a legal battle against members of her own family to have it removed.

In his appeal, Gilmore disputed a lower court ruling that taking out the feeding tube would not be euthanasia. After the Supreme Court ruling, the governor’s office said it would not press its case.

Finn, a former Louisville, Ky., TV anchorman, ruptured his aorta in a 1995 traffic accident, depriving his brain of oxygen. He was left unable to eat, care for himself or communicate.

His wife sought to remove his feeding tube, saying he had told her he would never want to live in such a condition. Relatives were split concerning whether to remove the tube.