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Suicide, Liberty And Our Imperfect Constitution: An Analysis Of The Legitimacy Of The Supreme Court's Entanglement In Decisions To Terminate Life-Sustaining Medical Treatment, Terrance A. Kline

Campbell Law Review

As the law developed in the states, the Supreme Court of the United States, in its 1990 opinion in Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, determined that there exists a right to terminate life-sustaining medical treatment under the United States Constitution. As a result of the decision, new uncertainties have been infused into the state legislative and judicial responses to the issue. After examining the Cruzan decision below, I probe the constitutional legitimacy and the prudence of the Supreme Court's role in decisions relating to the termination of life-sustaining medical treatment. I conclude that the Court in Cruzan, though …