Smith died Wednesday, after winning a legal battle to be removed from a life-support ventilator RELATED VIDEO CNN's Susan Candiotti reviews the case (May 18) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K  MESSAGE BOARD: Right to die

May 19, 1999
Web posted at: 9:54 p.m. EDT (0154 GMT)

In this story: 'I'm requesting to die with dignity' Police: Mother fired during argument Patient passes legal tests RELATED STORIES, SITES

ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Paralyzed shooting victim Georgette Smith died Wednesday after her life-supporting ventilator was disconnected under a court order she had sought.

Smith, 42, was paralyzed from the neck down by a bullet allegedly fired by her mother. She died at 5:46 p.m. EDT, said Lucerne Medical Center spokeswoman Lisa Schultz.

Her death cleared the way for charges against her mother, Shirley Egan, to be upgraded from attempted murder to first-degree murder, which carries a possible death sentence.

Legal observers said this could be the first time somebody has been charged with murder after the victim asked to be taken off life support.

Smith had to sue the medical rehabilitation center in order to win her right to die. A civil court judge, Richard Conrad, ruled in her favor Tuesday

Before announcing his decision, the Orange County Circuit judge met privately with Smith at the hospital.

"Ms. Smith has made a difficult choice, a choice which she has a right to make," Conrad said. "This court has found that she is competent to make that choice."

In an earlier deposition with her lawyer, Scott Slanda, Smith was asked if she understood the consequences of being taken off the machine.

"Yes, I will die," Smith told him.

When he asked if that's what she wanted, Smith responded, "That's what I'm requesting -- to die with dignity ... I want to die because I cannot live this way."

The judge's ruling was issued on the same day Smith gave a bedside deposition in the criminal case against her mother. Both the prosecution and defense wanted her testimony before a decision was handed down on her right-to-die request.

Proceedings in the criminal case are under a gag order.

During depositions at the rehabilitation hospital Tuesday, Egan and Smith saw each other for the first time since the shooting March 8.

Egan's lawyer, Bob Wesley, said the mother was confused but understood why her daughter wanted to be taken off the ventilator.

"She doesn't want to be indicted for first-degree murder," Wesley said, "but she doesn't want her daughter going through pain or suffering trying to save Miss Egan."

Wesley called the shooting a tragic accident. "It certainly was not her intention to shoot her daughter," he said.

Egan, 68, had moved in with Smith and Smith's boyfriend, Larry Videlock, a few weeks before the shooting .

The mother had been in a car accident last year that left her frail and blind in one eye. According to court files, she also had a history of being prescribed antidepressants.

Egan allegedly became upset after hearing that Smith and Videlock planned to move her to a nursing home. She fired a .38-caliber handgun at both of them, missing the boyfriend, investigators said.

Egan told police she was trying to shoot over her daughter's head in order to scare her, CNN has learned.

The bullet entered Smith's neck and severed her spine.

Smith was able to speak with some effort, but she could not swallow and needed a feeding tube. She had no control over her bladder or bowels and would have always had a high risk of pneumonia, infections, ulcers and bedsores.

"All I can do is wink my eyes and wiggle my nose, wiggle my tongue. I can't move any other part of my body," Smith said in a deposition last week, seeking to compel the hospital to let her die. "God, don't leave me this way. ... I can't live like this."

Doctors had said Smith was a non-terminal quadriplegic, meaning she could live for years with the help of machines. But they said she would die within minutes if disconnected from her ventilator.

Emotionally torn, Smith's daughters, 22-year-old Candice Smith and 19-year-old Joeleen Hill, supported their mother's decision to end her life.

"She's prepared herself because she knows she's lived a good life and she doesn't want to finish her life in this way," Candice Smith had said.

For Conrad, that was not the issue. Before the judge granted Smith's request, the only thing the paralyzed woman had to do was pass a three-pronged legal test, according to Kenneth Goodman, a medical ethicist at the University of Miami.

"If a patient is cooperative, well-informed and uncoerced," he said, "she can make any decision she wants, including one that leads to her death."

In 1990, the Florida Supreme Court found a special protection for patients wanting to die under a privacy amendment in the state's constitution.

Because of that, various right-to-life groups in Florida said Tuesday that they had no standing to appeal the judge's decision.

Formal requests to die from non-terminal patients were extremely rare, said medical ethicists. The desire to die after a severe spinal injury can be strong, but usually passes after several months.

Ethicists said the Smith case was unusual because of the legal risk it posed to Smith's mother.

Smith had sued the hospital for $15,000 for refusing to take her off the respirator.

A hospital spokesman said religious groups trying to talk Smith out of her request had been unsuccessful in attempts to meet with her.

Correspondent Susan Candiotti and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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