10-05-2012, 09:51 AM
I have empathy for this poor woman's parents. They honestly believe their daughter will go to Hell if this is allowed to happen. What a terrible thought to have to live with...
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The state's highest court has sided with a terminally ill Queens woman waging a legal battle with her parents over her decision to be taken off life support.
A brain-stem tumor has paralyzed 28-year-old Grace Sung Eun Lee from the neck down, and she depends on a tube to eat and one to breathe. The decision clears the way for Lee to chose to end her life, but her parents may pursue other legal actions and the ultimate outcome is still unclear.
Lee is in critical condition at North Shore in Manhasset. She can only mouth words and shake her head yes or no.
The doctors at Long Island's North Shore University Hospital said they would like to respect Lee's wishes and remove her feeding and breathing tubes. But Lee's devout parents -- religious Korean immigrants -- had argued that would be suicide and would keep her from going to heaven. The filed legal motions to stop the hospital from removing the tube.
A lower court judge had ruled Lee was competent to make her choice. On Thursday, Smith said that if the Appellate Division Court in Brooklyn vacates the restraining order, Lee's breathing tube would be removed and "Grace would die within minutes."
"I believe if you set the day and time of your death, you're committing suicide and that is a sin," said Lee's father, the Rev. Manho Lee, through an interpreter on Thursday.
Speaking at a news conference in their attorney's office Thursday, the minister and his wife, Jin-ah Lee, claimed their always-obedient daughter who headed a youth group at their church in Queens would never willingly end her God-given life and that she had been unduly influenced by doctors
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Rig...41721.html
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The state's highest court has sided with a terminally ill Queens woman waging a legal battle with her parents over her decision to be taken off life support.
A brain-stem tumor has paralyzed 28-year-old Grace Sung Eun Lee from the neck down, and she depends on a tube to eat and one to breathe. The decision clears the way for Lee to chose to end her life, but her parents may pursue other legal actions and the ultimate outcome is still unclear.
Lee is in critical condition at North Shore in Manhasset. She can only mouth words and shake her head yes or no.
The doctors at Long Island's North Shore University Hospital said they would like to respect Lee's wishes and remove her feeding and breathing tubes. But Lee's devout parents -- religious Korean immigrants -- had argued that would be suicide and would keep her from going to heaven. The filed legal motions to stop the hospital from removing the tube.
A lower court judge had ruled Lee was competent to make her choice. On Thursday, Smith said that if the Appellate Division Court in Brooklyn vacates the restraining order, Lee's breathing tube would be removed and "Grace would die within minutes."
"I believe if you set the day and time of your death, you're committing suicide and that is a sin," said Lee's father, the Rev. Manho Lee, through an interpreter on Thursday.
Speaking at a news conference in their attorney's office Thursday, the minister and his wife, Jin-ah Lee, claimed their always-obedient daughter who headed a youth group at their church in Queens would never willingly end her God-given life and that she had been unduly influenced by doctors
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Rig...41721.html
