Judge says 69-pound anorexic woman has right to starve

[TexasTowelie]

A New Jersey judge ruled Monday that a woman who weighs 69 pounds and has fought anorexia for most of her life has the right to starve.

The woman, 29, spent nearly two years in a psychiatric hospital and told a court this month that she refused to eat any food and wished to enter palliative care instead, which focuses on the comfort of the seriously or terminally ill.

A Superior Court judge ruled Monday that she cannot be fed against her will, and it is in her best interest to be transferred to a palliative care unit.

In a 140-minute opinion delivered orally at the bench, and shaped by landmark court decisions on personal self-determination, Morris County Judge Paul Armstrong called the woman’s testimony, “forthright, responsive, knowing, intelligent, voluntary, steadfast and credible,” the Wall Street Journal reported. Therefore, he ruled, the woman, referred to only as A.G., has the mental capacity to choose not to accept nutrition.

Read more: http://journaltimes.com/now/today/judge-says--pound-anorexic-woman-has-right-to-starve/article_087efbbc-ab83-559e-aa76-58213a008e3b.html

[uppityperson]

1. People have the right to autonomy, even when it is difficult for others.

[freeplessinseattle]

2. Interesting case. I sometimes wonder what would have happened when I was anorexic

as a teen, tho I never completely stopped eating. I'm not sure if I had an end goal, but knew I felt trapped by the condition and my future only involved daily calorie planning.

It was a miserable existence and seemed like no way out. Giving up the misery was the only way, but the idea was incredibly anxiety provoking, for all sorts of complex reasons.

That only lasted a couple years though, and now about 30 years later am light years away from that nightmare, though still struggle some with food/body issues (esp around stressful low control times like elections-and this time more of a nausea issue).

Might be a good distraction at Thanksgiving dinner to bring up this heated topic in case politics gets too much!

I feel for the woman in the article, I can't imagine what a hellish existence her life must be, and the extreme tiredness she must be feeling, yet still lucid and energetic enough to put forth a coherent covincing case.

On some level I cheer her victory, on another wish I could help, somehow, inspire her to try for a life free of that personal hell.