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Devout Father Of Terminally-Ill Woman Withdraws Health Proxy Petition
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Oct 9, 2012
Modified Oct 9, 2012
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Oct 9, 2012
Modified Oct 9, 2012
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The lawyer for Grace Lee, the terminally-ill Manhattan woman who won a court battle granting her the right to die last week, says his client will soon be moved to Hospice care, and her family has withdrawn a previous petition to act as her health care proxy.
Lee, 28, had been battling her parents for the right to ask to be taken off life-support at Long Island's North Shore Hospital, and though an appeals court ruled in her favor, father Man Ho Lee cited mental instability applied to be her legal guardian. Today, Judge Thomas Phelan ruled that Lee is mentally and physically capable of making her own decisions.
Both of Lee's parents are very devout, and fear that removing life support would be suicide and send her to hell. And though Lee had been asking doctors to remove her breathing tube earlier last week, she has since told her lawyer, David Smith, that she wishes to remain on a ventilator. "Grace and her parents have all been trying very hard to make the transition back from plaintiff and defendant, which family should never be, to parents and dying daughter," Smith told NBC New York. Lee, who was been told she has between two weeks and two months to live, has agreed to make her father her health proxy when she can no longer make health decisions for herself.
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Rebecca Fishbein
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