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Analysis of the Supreme Court of New Jersey's Decision in the Claire Conroy Case

0 n January 17, 1985 the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided in the matter of Claire C. Conroy (A-108).’ (The brief for amicus curiae presented by the American Geriatrics Society in this case was published in the December 1984 issue of the Journal.2) The Court’s ruling has been hailed as a victory for the right to die movement as it clarifies some of the ambiguities of the same Court’s findings in the famous 1976 Karen Quinlan case.3 Then, the Quinlan family won the right to have their hospitalized daughter removed from a respirator, but contrary to some medical expectations, death did not ensue and the family chose not to request terminating artificial feedings. The circumstances in the Conroy case differed somewhat from the earlier case. Briefly, Claire Conroy was an 84-year-old nursing home resident who suffered from progressive and irreversible physical and mental impairment and whose condition had deteriorated to the point where, unable to speak or swallow, she received food and medicine through a nasogastric tube. She was able to move only to a minor extent, could only smile or moan in response to certain physical stimuli, and was considered to be severely demented. Contrary to the recommendation of the primary physician and the nursing home administrator, Ms. Conroy’s guardian obtained lower court approval to remove the feeding tube on the basis that life had become impossibly and permanently burdensome and intellectual function was only at a very primitive level. While the decision was being appealed, Ms. Conroy died with the nasogastric tube still in place, but al-