Court rules that Grace Sung Eun Lee’s wish to die will been granted

A state appeals court ruled Friday that Grace Sung Eun Lee, 28, the terminally ill Manhattan banker who has been locked in a legal battle with her parents over her decision to be taken off life support, will get her way

Parents Jin-ah and Manho Lee with their daughter, who is terminally ill with brain cancer.
TAKEOUR POLL
It’s now in Grace’s hands.

A state appeals court ruled Friday that Grace Sung Eun Lee’s parents can’t override the terminally ill woman’s right to die.

It wasn’t clear when she would decide to be taken off life support, but her lawyer, David Smith, says the court decision makes it clear that Lee is in control.

“I am not doing it today,” she told him, according to Smith.

Lee, 28, with her face draped in anguish, told a Daily News reporter earlier in the week that she wanted her battle with brain cancer to end.

“I want to die,” she said Wednesday.
FAMILY SAYS VIDEO PROVES LEE WANTED TO STAY ON LIFE SUPPORT
The Manhattan banker has been on a respirator since last month, unable to eat or breathe on her own. Her devout parents, who believe she’ll go to hell if she pulls the plug, have been trying to block Long Island’s North Shore Hospital from honoring her request to die.

But with the appellate court ruling, Lee is now free to make her own decision.

“Whatever little power this poor lady has left, she feels empowered that the court has clearly now recognized that this is up to her and only up to her,” Smith said after delivering the news to Lee.

Grace Sung Eun Lee fell ill when doctors found a tumor on her brain stem.

Smith said Lee, who has an inoperable brain tumor, told him she was going to speak with her doctors and relatives. What Lee will decide and when remains unknown.

“It is now as it ought to have been all along — a dying young woman surrounded by her family and consulting with her doctors,” added Smith, who will visit his client every day.

Hours after the ruling, Lee’s family dismissed the judges’ decision. Without providing specifics, he vowed to continue the legal fight.

“We cannot accept a court order that could take someone’s life,” said her father, the Rev. Manho Lee. “Some people say my daughter has the right to die. I think only God has the choice to take someone’s life or not.”

With his wife, Jin-ah, sobbing beside him, Lee’s father said the family believes she’s getting better.

Lee with her parents, who lost their fight to keep her on life support.

“We pray that she’s going to get healed,” he said outside the hospital.

His wife could barely muster words.

“We don’t understand,” she said.

North Shore Hospital spokesman Terry Lynam, meanwhile, said doctors are awaiting Lee’s instructions.

“We’ll abide by whatever decisions are made,” Lynam said.

Lee’s health deteriorated with frightening speed.

A financial manager at Bank of America, Lee was training for the New York City Marathon last year when she fell ill and was diagnosed with brain cancer.

She suffered a seizure last month and was rushed to North Shore, where she lost her ability to move, eat and speak clearly.

In the following weeks, she begged doctors to remove life support, they have said.

As the hospital was preparing to disconnect her last week, Lee’s parents intervened.
Manho Lee and his wife, Jin-ah Lee, speak outside North Shore Hospital in Long Island on Friday after a state appeals court ruled that their terminally ill daughter, Grace Lee, can choose to be taken off life support.

They rushed to court Sept. 24 hoping to have their daughter declared incompetent and her father appointed guardian. After an emergency hearing, a Long Island judge ruled the tubes could be removed.

Still unable to accept their daughter’s fate, Lee’s parents rushed to the Appellate Division in Brooklyn and obtained a temporary order keeping life support in place.

In a motion to the four-judge panel, Lee’s parents spelled out their objections, arguing that their daughter has “devoted her life to her faith.”

They note that she has worked at her church, ran a Bible group at work and went on missionary trips to South Africa, Ethiopia and Mexico.

“One of the tenets of the faith is the preservation of life under all circumstances,” the parents’ motion says.

“The removal of the respirator and/or the feeding tube is considered suicide. A person who commits suicide is condemned in the next life to burn in Hell forever.”

“Obviously, this could not be (Lee’s) intention,” it adds.

Lee’s lawyer countered that the incapacitated woman has made her desire to die crystal clear.

“My client had directed me in the clearest and most unmistakable of terms to ‘not let that weekend pass,’ ” Smith wrote.

He also pointed out that she has no hope for recovery.

“Her brain stem is so utterly compromised that she will never again be able to breathe on her own,” Smith’s motion says.

Even with the court ruling against Lee’s parents, a hearing scheduled last week on the issue of her father’s guardianship is still slated for Tuesday.

But after huddling with the lawyers for Lee’s parents in a closed-door meeting with the judge Friday, her attorney said there’s little left to be decided.

Now, it’s up to Lee.

“There are now no restraints remaining on her exercising her right to die,” Smith said. “If and when she decides to exercise it, she can do so. But she has not made that decision.”