In Re Swan

In this case we revisit the sensitive question, first addressed by In re Gardner, 534 A.2d 947 (Me.1987), of when life-sustaining procedures may be discontinued for a hospital patient in a persistent vegetative state without hope of improvement. The case at bar differs from Gardner in two respects. Whereas Joseph Gardner was about 21, Chad Swan, the patient here, was 1773 years old when, shortly before the auto accident that left him in a persistent vegetative state, he expressed his desire not to be maintained artifically in that condition, but rather to be allowed to die. Also, whereas the…