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The Quinlans signed a statement authorizing Drs. Robert Morse and Arshad Javed to shut off the respirator. Unsure of the legal and moral implications of such an act and unwilling to risk a charge of malpractice, the physicians refused. Quinlan then turned to the law and asked Judge Muir to name him Karen's guardian so that he could authorize her removal from the machine. Muir responded by asking the county prosecutor to show cause why he should not be prevented from prosecuting if the machine were stopped. Muir also appointed a public defender to protect the unconscious Karen's legal rights.
As the key witness last week, Quinlan spoke in a voice so low that he could barely be understood by those at the rear of the courtroom. He denied that he wanted to end his daughter's life, arguing that her life would go on after death. "Terminate is a word that I don't particularly like," he said. "I want to put her back into a natural state. This is the Lord's will."
Next day Quinlan 's wife Julia Ann took the stand and testified that if her daughter were able to make a choice, she would surely not want survival as a subhuman being. "Life was very important to her and very dear to her," said Mrs. Quinlan. "But the way that she could live her life was also very important to her." Mrs. Quinlan said that she and her daughter had seen what incurable cases of cancer could do to people and their families, and she insisted that Karen was against the artificial prolongation of life. "Mommy, please don't ever let them keep me alive with any extraordinary means," Mrs. Quinlan quoted Karen as saying. She added: "I cannot say that those were her exact words...but to her life was very dear and she wanted to enjoy life. And that's why when I see her in this condition, I know in my heart as her mother it is not what Karen would want to be."
Lori Gaffney, 18, a longtime friend, had also discussed the cancer of another acquaintance's mother with Karen. "Karen stated that if it was her, she would not want to be kept alive by machines under any circumstances."
Several doctors were called to the witness stand to testify on Karen's disastrous condition. Dr. Fred Plum, a professor of neurology at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, described her condition as a "persistent vegetative state." After apologizing to the family for the pain his words would cause, Dr. Sidney Diamond, a neurologist at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, explained Plum's diagnosis in graphic terms. Said Diamond: "She was lying in bed, emaciated, curled up; every joint was bent into a flexion posture making a tight fetal position. Her eyes, which were open at the time moved together ... they darted about." During the five minutes he observed Karen, Diamond said, "she had five paroxysms during which she would tighten even more; there would be a forced expulsion of air, some of which escaped through the cuff around the trachea and produced a sound. Nothing external provoked it."