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The Right to Die: The Case of Nancy Grace

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One day in January 1980 in Chicago Illinois, a women name Nancy Grace was driving excessively fast and lost control, the accident was relentless deadly accident. When the paramedics arrived, they were able to restore her breathing and heartbeat; she was then transported to the hospital, unconscious, 26 year old Nancy continued to be fed through a surgically implanted tube. After several years, “a court found that although her respiration and circulation continued unaided, she was unconscious to her surroundings except for reflexive responses to sound and perhaps painful stimuli, her brain had been degenerated and severely injured, irreversibly”(1996-2000 Chris Docker) she was a spastic quadriplegic; she suffered contraction of her four extremities, with irreversible muscle and tendon damage; she had no cognitive or reflex ability to swallow food or water or to maintain her essential daily needs nor would she ever recover such an ability. She lay in vegetative state even though she had told her housemate that, if sick, injured or extremely ill, she would not wish to continue her life and be a bother to anyone unless she could live “at least halfway normal”. This was the first time the United States Supreme Court had been faced with what we call the "right to die”( 2000 Chris Docker) or known yet as “Euthanasia”. They said that Missouri had "arrogated to itself" the power to define life, and Nancy’s life and liberty consequently was put into disturbing conflict. She had not

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