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Terminally-Ill Woman Granted Right To Die, But Family Insists She Wants To Live
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Oct 6, 2012
Modified Oct 6, 2012
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Grace Lee before she fell ill.
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Oct 6, 2012
Modified Oct 6, 2012
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Yesterday, we reported that state courts ruled in favor of Grace Lee, the terminally-ill Manhattan woman who has been battling her family for the right to die; but now that she won in court, she's taking a moment to make the decision—and Lee's family says that means their daughter really wants to live.
Lee, 28, whose brain cancer has left her paralyzed from the neck down and is hooked up to a breathing machine to stay alive, has been asking doctors at North Shore University Hospital on Long Island to let her die, which her devout parents see as suicide and worry will lead her to hell. An appeals court panel ruled yesterday that the hospital could take Lee off life-support if Lee requested it be done, and Lee's court-appointed attorney, David Smith, said Lee had been making the request. "Her use of her lips is very, very vivid and she says, 'I want to die,'" Smith told CBS News.
But now that the court has granted Lee the right to remove life support, Smith says she is taking time to make the decision. "She has decided that for today, she's not going to implement her right [to die]" Smith told the Times. "She's thinking very closely in consultation with both her parents and her doctors about what she's going to do after today."
Lee's parents have interpreted this as a sign that their daughter wants to live, telling reporters at a news conference, "Mr. Smith told me that Grace showed a strong confidence she wants to live. That's what he heard," though Smith told the Times that "that was not exactly what I said to him." Lee's family still believes their daughter can recover, and say she's been taking herbal remedies like ginseng. "I'm thankful now that Grace is getting better," Lee said at the press conference. "That she's getting more conscious and willing to live."
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