Author to discuss celebrated
right-to-die case May 5 at CGH

April 25, 2006 — William Colby, the author of “Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan,” will speak on the “Right to Die” at 8 a.m., May 5, in the Lifestyle Center – Chesapeake General Hospital.

The lecture is free and open to the public. It is being sponsored by the Chesapeake Health Foundation.

Colby is the attorney who represented the Cruzan family pro bono in the only right-to-die case to come before the Supreme Court. Nancy Cruzan died in 1994, seven years after she lapsed into a persistent vegetative state and her parents began a fight to remove her from feeding tubes. Her groundbreaking case drew national media attention and spurred the medical establishment to set clear ethical guidelines about the right to die.

Colby’s book chronicles the Cruzan family’s vigil during the agonizing struggle. For more information, call Patricia Pishioneri, education services director at CGH, at 312.6162.