[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 9 (Monday, February 7, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E70]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CONGRATULATING THE KAREN ANN QUINLAN HOSPICE ON ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY

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                           HON. MARGE ROUKEMA

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, February 7, 2000

  Mrs. ROUKEMA. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commend the Karen Ann Quinlan 
Hospice on its 20th year of operation. The Quinlan family has turned 
the desperate personal tragedy they shared with the world into a 
caring, compassionate program to help others faced with the impending 
loss of a loved one. The courage and faith they have shown is 
extraordinary.
  As a girl, Karen Ann Quinlan was a vibrant athlete who taught her 
younger brother to wrestle. As a young woman, she had a beautiful voice 
and dreamed of becoming a singer.
  In 1975, however, Karen Ann Quinlan's name quickly became a by-word 
for the legal and ethical dilemmas surrounding the treatment of 
terminally ill patients. On April 15 of that year, 21-year-old Karen 
Ann suffered cardiac arrest. Doctors saved her life but she suffered 
brain damage and lapsed into a ``chronic persistent vegetative state.'' 
Accepting doctors' judgment that there was no hope of recovering, but 
frustrated by their refusal to remove Karen Ann from her respirator 
because signs of brain activity continued, her parents sought court 
permission to disconnect the respirator.
  In 1976, the New Jersey Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision 
giving Joe and Julia Quinlan the right to remove their daughter from 
the respirator that assisted her breathing. The respirator was removed 
and Karen Ann remained alive but comatose another nine years at a 
Morris County nursing home before her death June 11, 1985.
  As a result of their personal tragedy, the Quinlans established the 
Karen Ann Quinlan Memorial Foundation in order to offer a community 
program to help families in similar challenges. The result was the 
Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice, which opened in Newton on April 15, 1980, 
the fifth anniversary of Karen's accident. The mission of the hospice 
is to afford all terminally ill individuals the opportunity to die in 
dignity and comfort in a home setting surrounded by the people they 
love. Services are offered without regard to ability to pay and include 
bereavement support for family and friends after a patient's death, and 
community education about terminal illness.
  The non-profit Hospice is accredited by the Community Health 
Accreditation Program and has received national commendations on its 
quality of care. More than 300 patients and family utilized the Hospice 
last year, bringing the total to more than 3,500 since it opened. Some 
76 percent of the patients served have suffered from cancer, but others 
have suffered cardiac, renal, respiratory, and kidney complications, as 
well as Alzheimer's.
  Mr. Speaker, Karen Ann Quinlan was the first modern icon of the 
right-to-die debate. The widespread news coverage, two books, and a 
movie helped spread the word internationally of the challenges facing a 
family when a loved one is stricken by a terminal illness. Her 
precedent-setting legal case paved the way for the living will, advance 
directives, and hospital ethics committees of today. Thousands of other 
terminally ill patients and their families have been able to die with 
dignity thanks to the battle waged by the Quinlan family.
  The Quinlans' sad loss has made it possible, with their loving 
support services, for others to bear their own losses. God bless the 
Quinlans for the courage to allow something good to come from such a 
tragedy and to bring comfort to the suffering.

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