Comatose Man Dies 8 Days After Feeding Tube Was Removed

Hugh Finn, a brain-damaged man who became the focus of a high-profile court fight over the right to die, died Friday, eight days after the feeding tube keeping him alive was removed. He was 44.

Finn, a former Louisville, Ky., television news anchor, had been unable to eat, communicate or care for himself since he suffered a ruptured aorta in a March 1995 car crash, depriving his brain of oxygen.

He was diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state with no chance of recovery. Finn’s wife and guardian, Michele Finn, ordered his feeding tube removed, which triggered a court fight that involved dissenting members of the family as well as the governor. But courts reaffirmed her right to make the decision.