The Nation - News from June 30, 1986

A 37-year-old paralyzed woman fighting for the right to be removed from a respirator died in Toms River, N.J., before the state’s highest court could hear her case. A Superior Court judge ruled June 23 that Kathleen Farrell, who suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease, had the right to be taken off the respirator that was keeping her alive. However, he stayed the ruling so that the state Supreme Court could consider appeals by her sons, and an emergency hearing had been set for Tuesday. Farrell’s husband, Francis, declined to comment after her death.