JOSEPH and JULIA QUINLAN

2:JOSEPH and JULIA QUINLAN. They are the parents of Karen Ann Quinlan. Joseph Quinlan died this past Saturday at teh age of 71. A lawyer for the family said the cause was bone cancer. He and his wife became early pioneers in the "right to die" debate" after they fought for the legal authority to remove a respirator that their daughter was attatched to afer doctors said she had no hope of coming out of a coma. Twenty years ago the New Jersey State Supreme Court issued it's landmark decision (March 31, 1976) allowing their comatose daughter to be removed from a ventilator. She then lived nine more years. The Quinlans wrote about Karen in the book "Karen Ann: The Quinlans Tell Their Story," (Doubleday-1977). In 1980 they used the proceeds from the book to open the Karen Ann Quinlan Center of Hope Hospice in Newton, New Jersey. This interview originally aired April 9, 1996.