Medicine has always been about prolonging the lives of human beings, through new technological advances doctors are now capable of maintaining artificial life. But one would argue that just because technology allows for the preservation of a life, it does not make it a life of quality. In a case in which the patients are in a permanently vegetative state or coma, although feeding tubes and ventilation keep them “alive” they are no longer living a quality life. The right to refuse treatment then falls into question. The very first U.S. court case to deal with the issue of end-of-life care was the case of Karen Ann Quinlan in 1975. After Karen slipped into a coma, her parents requested to have her ventilator removed and be allowed to die a natural
