Delio v. Westchester County Medical Center

OPINION OF THE COURT

Thompson, J.

We address on this appeal the controversial and profoundly difficult question of whether the common-law right to decline medical treatment recognized by the courts of this State encompasses a right to remove or withhold artificial means of nourishment and hydration to an individual in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery. Our analysis requires a careful balancing of the patient’s firmly expressed desire to avoid efforts to sustain his life under circumstances which he would have considered degrading, demeaning and totally nonpurposeful, and…