Opinion ID: 2234743
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Imminence of Death

Text: AUL contends, and the circuit court found, that there was no testimony that Mr. Greenspan's death would be imminent in the absence of the feeding tube. Before withdrawing the feeding tube, imminence of death would be required if the Illinois Living Will Act applied directly here; though the Act does not apply directly, its requirement of imminence was effectively adopted by Longeway (133 Ill.2d at 47) as one of the criteria for authorizing withdrawal. As we have seen, Dr. Burke did testify that, without the tube, Mr. Greenspan would die in no more than a week. Though AUL argues that Dr. Burke acknowledged that, with feeding tubes, patients have been known to live for years in a chronic vegetative state, such a fact is irrelevant. Under section 2(h) of the Illinois Living Will Act, from which Longeway (133 Ill.2d at 47) borrowed the definition of terminal illness, a terminal condition is one in which (1) death is imminent and (2) death-delaying procedures serve only to prolong the dying process. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 110 1/2, par. 702(h).) Death-delaying procedures can include tube-feeding. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 110 1/2, par. 702(d).) If the very delay caused by the procedures were allowed to govern the assessment of imminence, the Act's definition of a terminal condition would be rendered circular and meaningless. Imminence must be judged as if the death-delaying procedures were absent, and in this case the testimony was that Mr. Greenspan's death would occur within a week after withdrawal of the feeding tube. Imminent has been defined as [n]ear at hand; mediate rather than immediate; close rather than touching; impending; on the point of happening; threatening; menacing; perilous. (Black's Law Dictionary 676 (5th ed. 1979).) None of the parties disputes that death is imminent when expected within a week. Accordingly, the circuit court erred in finding an absence of testimony that Mr. Greenspan's death was imminent. The court also erred in denying the public guardian's amended petition to the extent that the denial relied on that ground.