Colby, William H. 1955-

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COLBY, William H. 1955-

PERSONAL:

Born 1955; married; children: four.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Kansas City, MO. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Hay House, P.O. Box 5100, Carlsbad, CA 92018-5100.

CAREER:

Attorney and author. Kansas School of Law, visiting professor; Midwest Bioethics Center, fellow. Has appeared on national TV programs, including, Good Morning, America, Today Show, CBS This Morning, MacNeil Lehrer Report, and others.

WRITINGS:

Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan, Hay House (Carlsbad, CA), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

Attorney and writer William H. Colby is the lawyer who successfully argued the first "right to die" case to come before the U.S. Supreme Court. In Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan, Colby recounts the tragic events leading up to the case, the legal process involved, and the profound effects that Nancy Cruzan's short life and lingering death had on her family and the world.

In the early 1980s, twenty-five-year-old Nancy Cruzan suffered a devastating automobile accident when her car left a Missouri highway and came to a crashing, rolling stop hundreds of yards away. Cruzan, having been thrown from the car, was left in a persistent vegetative state that required continuous life support and nourishment through a feeding tube. "Every part of her brain that made her uniquely Nancy was gone by the time [the emergency workers] got there," Colby was quoted as saying on the Life's End Institute Web site.

Early on, parents Joe and Joyce Cruzan hoped that their daughter might recover. For five years, Nancy Cruzan was kept alive by artificial means, though she showed no signs of recovery from the coma she had been in since the accident. Ultimately, according to Harry Charles in Library Journal, Joe and Joyce made the decision to remove their daughter's feeding tube and let her die "in peace." The Cruzan's decision ignited a furious controversy, involving vigorous opposition by right-to-life advocates, the Missouri legislature, Missouri Governor John Ashcroft, the media, and, finally, the Supreme Court. In a protracted legal battle before the high court, Colby argued that the Cruzans had the right to decide to withhold their daughter's life-sustaining treatment. His argument was based on the fact that Nancy's own wishes in the matter were unclear and she was incapable of making the decision herself. The court eventually agreed. Despite the unceasing media attention, the interminable legal pressure, and the violence threatened by protesters, Nancy Cruzan's feeding tube was removed. She died on December 26, 1990.

Using quotes from legal briefs, news stories, letters, and other documents, as well as reconstructions of conversations with family members, opposing lawyers, government representatives, and judges, Colby's book provides a detailed, first-hand analysis of the landmark case. Charles called Colby's account of the case "thoughtful," adding, "the book is distinguished by the author's attention to detail and clear writing style." Booklist reviewer Vanessa Bush called the book "a truly riveting look at the case that sharpened public debate about the medical and legal issues surrounding brain death and the right to die with dignity."

Colby also emphasizes the deep impact the case had on Joe and Joyce Cruzan—the book begins and ends with Joe Cruzan's suicide note. "This blue-collar family keeps one goal from beginning to end—trying to do what they know in their hearts their loved one would want them to do," remarked a writer in a description of the book on the Hay House Web site. Elizabeth D. McCarter wrote on the Missouri Bar Web site, "Bill Colby revealed the deep anguish of the Cruzans …as parents suffering a non-ending nightmare: attempting for years to bring Nancy back, and finally fighting for years to give her peace."