Judge Allows Transfer of Woman in Coma
CLAYTON, Mo. — A judge ruled Wednesday that a man may move his severely brain-damaged daughter out of a Missouri center and take her to Minnesota for further evaluation.
Probate Judge Louis Kohn lifted a temporary order that blocked Pete Busalacchi from taking his 20-year-old daughter, Christine, to a Minnesota doctor and possibly removing her feeding tube.
Minnesota law allows families and their doctors more leeway than Missouri law in deciding whether to cut life support to the severely disabled.
Kohn made his ruling after a two-day hearing in which the Missouri Department of Health sought a temporary injunction that would have prevented Busalacchi from moving his daughter out of Mt. Vernon Rehabilitation Center until a detailed hearing could be held.
The woman was brain-damaged in a 1987 car accident in St. Louis. Her case is similar to the celebrated Nancy Cruzan case, which produced a landmark ruling in the right-to-die fight.
Busalacchi said he wants his daughter to be evaluated by Dr. Ronald Cranford, a neurologist at the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
Cranford is a medical ethicist who favors euthanasia in cases like Cruzan’s, when brain damage is extensive and irreversible.
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