Hospital Asks Court to OK Turning Off Respirator

The “right to die” debate reached another milestone Tuesday in a courtroom in Hennepin County, where the public hospital is seeking permission to remove an 87-year-old woman from life-support equipment over the objections of her husband and children.

The case is believed to be the first contested court proceeding in which a government agency--the hospital--has implicitly sought to end the life of someone not accused of a crime. In that sense, it represents the opposite of most celebrated right-to-die cases, in which relatives have sought court permission to end life-sustaining treatment of dying patients.

Helga Wanglie, a retired Minneapolis schoolteacher, has been kept alive in Hennepin County Medical Center by a respirator and various other sophisticated treatments since she suffered a heart attack and severe brain damage last May.

She is in a persistent vegetative state and there is no hope that she will regain consciousness, doctors who have examined her say.

Wanglie’s husband, Oliver, 87, was in court Tuesday as Assistant County Atty. Michael B. Miller described what he called the relatives’ “pattern of avoidance and non-cooperation” in dealing with her condition and their insistence on continuing treatment that “is not in this patient’s personal or medical interest.”

Oliver Wanglie, a retired lawyer, “says the family hopes for a miracle,” Miller said at the hearing.

County officials are asking that a professional conservator and estate manager be appointed to act as the patient’s guardian in deciding whether she should be kept on the respirator.

Oliver Wanglie is asking that he be named his wife’s legal guardian.

Money is not an issue, although, in his opening statement, Miller said that Oliver Wanglie would have a “conflict of interest” as his wife’s guardian because he gets her pension and Social Security checks. Her medical expenses are covered by private insurance.

Helga Wanglie left no written or other instructions as to her wishes on life-sustaining treatment.