Remembering Nancy Cruzan 20 Years Later

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Chris Cruzan White
Angie Broaddus
Miranda Lewis

It’s hard to believe for many, but it’s been 20 years since Nancy Cruzan died after years of litigation and public strife over the right to withdraw life sustaining treatment.

In this edition of The Bioethics Channel, host Lorell LaBoube takes a look back and what lies ahead with Chris White, Nancy Cruzan’s sister, and her two daughters, Angie Broaddus and Miranda Lewis.

Link: The Cruzan Family 20 Years Later

Cruzan 20 Years Later: Are We Better Off?

Terry Rosell

Rosemary Flanigan Chair

On November 12-13, over one hundred of us from places across the nation gathered in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. We commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Nancy Beth Cruzan case and implementation of the Patient Self-Determination Act. We asked how health care has changed at the end of life two decades after Cruzan and the PSDA.

Are we any better off? It depends who you ask.

We asked more than a dozen of the brightest and best experts on these matters, and their presentations were, I think, outstanding. Among those who spoke was Chris Cruzan White, Nancy'a sister. Chris’s remarks, along with a video honoring her late parents, Joe and Joyce Cruzan, were compelling as always.

In attendance at the conference were several seminarians, most of them serving African American churches in a pastoral capacity. They attended the conference as a requisite activity of a course in Christian Ethics at Central Baptist Seminary. I conducted a debriefing session with this group following the official adjournment. Their response?

“Why have we not heard these things before, as this information is so important to the African American community?” “If we hadn’t happened to come (on account of the seminary course), you all would have just had another conversation among yourselves. Where are the people of color besides us?” “How do we go about taking what we’ve learned here and spread awareness?”
One pastor has met already with some other clergy colleagues in Topeka, and he aims to convene a planning task force with the possibility of hosting an APPEAL training event http://divinity.duke.edu/initiatives-centers/iceol/resources/appeal#details or something like it, to address palliative and end of life care of African Americans.

Twenty years after Cruzan and the PSDA, are we any better off?

It’s hard to say. Those who attended the conference seem better off for having done so, anyway, if evaluations received are any indication of what happened: “Exceeded all expectations!”

So begins the next twenty years.

Early Registration Rate Deadline October 15

The Legacy of Nancy Cruzan:

20 years later are we any better at healthcare?

November 12 – 13, 2010

Kansas City, MO

REGISTER NOW: www.cruzan.bioethics.net

The early registration deadline for this conference is October 15. After October 15, the rates will change.

Registrants can sign up for one day of the conference at $135.

On or before October 15th

Individual registration, $225
Groups of 4 or more, $200/person
Students, $99 (Limited scholarships are available.)
Daily Rate, $135

After October 15th

Individuals, $250
Groups of 4 or more, $225
Students, $99 (Limited scholarships are available.)
Daily Rate, $135

Please register by clicking here.

The Legacy of Nancy Cruzan: 20 Years Later, Are We Any Better at Healthcare?

A National Conference on the Past, Present and Future of the PSDA, Nutrition - Hydration, and Palliative Care

November 12 and 13

Kansas City, MO

REGISTER NOW at www.cruzan.bioethics.net

Twenty years ago, many policy leaders thought that the Nancy Cruzan decision and the Patient Self-Determination Act had established a policy framework to address one of society’s most vexing ethical issues – decision making for those without cognitive capacity including those who were permanently unconscious.

Since then, many have come to believe that this policy structure was insufficient, fractured, or simply wrong headed. It has certainly been insufficient.

On November 12th and 13th, leading bioethicists, clinical researchers, moral theologians and other thought leaders will convene in Kansas City “at the epicenter” where both Cruzan and PSDA have deep roots to reflect on these historic events and to revisit the concerns they attempted to address.

A new model will be presented and considered as a solution to these problems in an increasingly diverse and pluralistic society confronting limited financial resources.

For more information and to register click below.

Links:

Conference Overview
Program
Speakers

Registration

The Story of Nancy Cruzan

At the Epicenter: Cruzan and PSDA 20 Years Later
November 12 and 13, 2010

Westin Crown Center
1 Pershing Road
Kansas City, MO

On December 6, 1989, Bill Colby walked to the podium of the Supreme Court of the United States to plead the case of his client, Nancy Cruzan. The next year, our country had a new constitutional right embodied within the Patient Self Determination Act of 1990.

That was 20 years ago. The court decision and the law will be noted during a conference entitled “At the Epicenter: Cruzan and PSDA 20 Years Later.” It’s an opportunity to convene leading voices in law, medicine, theology and ethics to reflect on these events and explore a controversial and difficult topic rooted in these two landmark events, artificial nutrition and hydration.

For more information about the Cruzan case, the conference and to register, click on the links below.

Links:

Overview
Program
Audio Podcast, A Conversation with Bill Colby, William Colby, JD, General Counsel – Truman Medical Center, September 30, 2009