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Helga Wanglie Revisited: Medical Futility and the Limits of Autonomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2009

David H. Johnson
David H. Johnson
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico School of Law
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Extract

There is little to indicate from, her circumstances that events would propel Helga Wanglie, an 86-year-old Minneapolis woman, into the center of public controversy. We know little of her life prior to the events that removed her from the world of conscious, sentient beings. By the time of her death on 4 July 1991, Mrs. Wanglie had become the focus of a nationwide public and professional debate on the rights of a patient in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) to receive aggressive medical treatment when such treatment is felt by the patient's doctors not to be in the patient's best interests.

Type
Special Section: Medical Futility: Demands, Duties, and Dilemmas
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , Spring 1993 , pp. 161 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

Notes

1. For the facts of the Wanglie case I have relied on two sources. Miles, SH. Informed demand for “non-beneficial” medical treatment. New England Journal of Medicine 1991;325:512.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMedCranford, RE. Helga Wanglie's ventilator. Hastings Center Report 1991;21(4):23.Google Scholar

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3. See note 2. Ackerman, . 1991;21(4):29.Google Scholar

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5. Schloendorff v. New York Hospital 1914: 211 NY 125.Google Scholar

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10. See note 1. Cranford, . 1991;21(4):23.Google Scholar

11. See note 1. Miles, . 1991;325:513.Google Scholar

12. See note 1. Miles, . 1991;325:513.Google Scholar

13. This was Helga Wanglie's statement at the beginning of her saga.

14. See note 9. Lantos, et al. 1989;87:81.Google Scholar

15. See note 9. Lantos, et al. 1989;87:82.Google Scholar

16. See note 9. Lantos, et al. 1989;87:83.Google Scholar

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21. See note 19. Schneiderman, et al. 1990;112:950.Google Scholar

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24. See note 6. Tomlinson, Brody. 1990;264:1277.Google Scholar

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26. Physicians chose this route out of their ethical conflict in the Baby L case. See Paris, JJ, Krone, RK, Reardon, F. Physicians’ refusal of requested treatment. New England Journal of Medicine 1990;322:1012.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

27. See note 25. Truog, et al. 1992;326:1563.Google Scholar

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29. See note 7. Veatch, Spicer. 1992;18:29.Google Scholar

30. Wickline v. State of California, 228 Cal. Rptr. 661 (Cal. App. 2 Dist. 1986).

31. See note 25. Brody, . 1992;20:113.Google Scholar

32. See note 25. Brody, . 1992;20:104.Google Scholar

33. See note 25. Brody, . 1992;20:113.Google Scholar

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35. Callahan, D. Medical futility, medical necessity. Hastings Center Report 1991;21(4):30, 34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

36. See note 34. Schwartz, . 1992;1:163.Google Scholar

37. Miles, SH. Legal procedures in Wanglie: a two-step, not a sidestep. Journal of Clinical Ethics 1991;2:285–6.Google Scholar