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Full-Text Articles in Law
A History Of The Law Of Assisted Dying In The United States, Alan Meisel
A History Of The Law Of Assisted Dying In The United States, Alan Meisel
Articles
The slow growth in the number of states that have enacted legislation to permit what is often referred to as “death with dignity” legislation—and more frequently referred to popularly as “physician assisted suicide” laws—has begun to accelerate in the past few years since the enactment of the first such statute in Oregon in 1994.
Like much other social reform legislation, there is a long history behind it. In this case, the history in the United States dates back at least to the latter part of the nineteenth century. Not until the 1980s, however, did these efforts gain any traction in …
Antecedent Law And Ethics Of Aid In Dying, Alan Meisel
Antecedent Law And Ethics Of Aid In Dying, Alan Meisel
Articles
Scholarly discussion of physician aid in dying – physicians actively aiding patients in ending their lives – has noticeably increased in recent years. While conversations and examinations of end-of-life treatment have been ongoing for decades, the antecedent law and ethics of aid in dying that have developed in the United States have recently moved into the spotlight. In this essay, written for a symposium at Quinnipiac School of Law, the author takes his audience on a brief journey through the history of end-of-life decision-making in the U.S., beginning with the early days of the Karen Quinlan case in 1976 and …
Machine Speech, Tim Wu
Machine Speech, Tim Wu
Faculty Scholarship
Computers are making an increasing number of important decisions in our lives. They fly airplanes, navigate traffic, and even recommend books. In the process, computers reason through automated algorithms and constantly send and receive information, sometimes in ways that mimic human expression. When can such communications, called here “algorithmic outputs,” claim First Amendment protection?
Substantive Due Process After Gonzales V. Carhart, Steven G. Calabresi
Substantive Due Process After Gonzales V. Carhart, Steven G. Calabresi
Faculty Working Papers
This Essay begins in Part I with a doctrinal evaluation of the status of Washington v. Glucksberg ten years after that decision was handed down. Discussion begins with consideration of the Roberts Court's recent decision in Gonzales v. Carhart and then turns to the subject of Justice Kennedy's views in particular on substantive due process. In Part II, the Essay goes on to consider whether the Glucksberg test for substantive due process decision making is correct in light of the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Essay concludes in Parts II and III that Glucksberg is right to confine …
The Morality Of Prophylactic Legislation (With Special Reference To Speed Limits, Assisted Suicide, Torture, And Detention Without Trial), Michael C. Dorf
The Morality Of Prophylactic Legislation (With Special Reference To Speed Limits, Assisted Suicide, Torture, And Detention Without Trial), Michael C. Dorf
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
My subject is the morality of prophylactic legislation. What do I mean by ‘prophylactic’ legislation? Let me illustrate the concept by drawing a contrast with the most famous hypothetical case in the scholarly literature of Anglo-American jurisprudence. During the course of their debate over the relation between law and morality, Lon Fuller and H. L. A. Hart disagreed about what tools are needed to discern the meaning and scope of a rule barring vehicles from a public park. Hart and Fuller clashed over whether legislative purpose and considerations of morality enter into the process of discerning what Hart famously called …
Can Glucksberg Survive Lawrence? Another Look At The End Of Life And Personal Autonomy, Yale Kamisar
Can Glucksberg Survive Lawrence? Another Look At The End Of Life And Personal Autonomy, Yale Kamisar
Articles
In Washington v. Glucksberg, the Court declined to find a right to physician-assisted suicide ("PAS") in the Constitution. Not a single Justice dissented. One would expect such a ruling to be quite secure. But Lawrence v. Texas, holding that a state cannot make consensual homosexual conduct a crime, is not easy to reconcile with Glucksberg. Lawrence certainly takes a much more expansive view of substantive due process than did Glucksberg. It is conceivable that the five Justices who made up the Lawrence majority-all of whom still sit on the Court-might overrule Glucksberg. For various reasons, …
On The Meaning And Impact Of The Physician-Assisted Suicide Cases, Yale Kamisar
On The Meaning And Impact Of The Physician-Assisted Suicide Cases, Yale Kamisar
Book Chapters
I read every newspaper article I could find on the meaning and impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's June 1997 decisions in Washington v Glucksberg and Vacco v Quill. I came away with the impression that some proponents of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) were unable or unwilling publicly to recognize the magnitude of the setback they suffered when the Court handed down its rulings in the PAS cases.
On The Meaning And Impact Of The Physician-Assisted Suicide Cases. (Symposium: Physician-Assisted Suicide: Facing Death After Glucksberg And Quill), Yale Kamisar
Articles
I read every newspaper article I could find on the meaning and impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's June 1997 decisions in Washington v. Glucksberg' and Vacco v. Quill.2 I came away with the impression that some proponents of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) were unable or unwilling publicly to recognize the magnitude of the setback they suffered when the Court handed down its rulings in the PAS cases.
Physician-Assisted Suicide: The Problems Presented By The Compelling, Heartwrenching Case, Yale Kamisar
Physician-Assisted Suicide: The Problems Presented By The Compelling, Heartwrenching Case, Yale Kamisar
Articles
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld New York and Washington state laws prohibiting the aiding of another to commit suicide,2 the spotlight will shift to the state courts, the state legislatures and state referenda. And once again proponents of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) will point to a heartwrenching case, perhaps the relatively rare case where a dying person is experiencing unavoidable pain (i.e., pain that not even the most skilled palliative care experts are able to mitigate), and ask: What would you want done to you if you were in this person's shoes?
The Future Of Physician-Assisted Suicide, Yale Kamisar
The Future Of Physician-Assisted Suicide, Yale Kamisar
Articles
I believe that when the Supreme Court handed down its decisions in 1997 in Washington v. Glucksberg and Vacca v. Quill, proponents of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) suffered a much greater setback than many of them are able or willing to admit.
Constitutional Aspects Of Physician-Assisted Suicide After Lee V. Oregon, Simon Canick
Constitutional Aspects Of Physician-Assisted Suicide After Lee V. Oregon, Simon Canick
Faculty Scholarship
On November 8, 1994, Oregon voters narrowly passed the highly controversial Death with Dignity Act (Measure 16), which marked the first time that physician-assisted suicide was explicitly legalized anywhere in the world. In Lee v. Oregon, a group of physicians, several terminally ill persons, a residential care facility, and individual operators of residential care facilities sought to enjoin enforcement of the new law, claiming various constitutional infirmities. The U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon enjoined enforcement of the law, acknowledging that it raised important constitutional issues including possible violations of the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of …
Constitutional Tragedy In Dying: Responses To Some Common Arguments Against The Constitutional Right To Die, James E. Fleming
Constitutional Tragedy In Dying: Responses To Some Common Arguments Against The Constitutional Right To Die, James E. Fleming
Faculty Scholarship
I shall argue for the constitutional right to die, including the right of terminally ill persons to physician-assisted suicide. Indeed, I shall argue that it would be a constitutional tragedy if the Supreme Court were to hold that the Constitution does not protect such a right to die,2 and thus to overrule the Ninth Circuit decision in Compassion in Dying v. Washington3 (to say nothing of the Second Circuit decision in Quill v. Vacco4). First, such a holding would entail that the Constitution sanctions a grievous wrong, a horrible form of tyranny: allowing the state to impose upon some citizens, …
The Reasons So Many People Support Physician-Assisted Suicide - And Why These Reasons Are Not Convincing, Yale Kamisar
The Reasons So Many People Support Physician-Assisted Suicide - And Why These Reasons Are Not Convincing, Yale Kamisar
Articles
It would be hard to deny that there is a great deal of support in this country-and ever-growing support-for legalizing physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Why is this so? I believe there are a considerable number of reasons. In this article, I shall discuss five common reasons and explain why I do not find any of them convincing.
Against Assisted Suicide - Even A Very Limited Form (Symposium: Assisted Suicide, Health Care And Medical Treatment Choices), Yale Kamisar
Against Assisted Suicide - Even A Very Limited Form (Symposium: Assisted Suicide, Health Care And Medical Treatment Choices), Yale Kamisar
Articles
Professor Robert Sedler is a leading constitutional law professor and a well-known civil liberties lawyer. I think he is right about many things. To cite but one example, I think he was right when he led the ACLU's successful legal attack on certain University of Michigan restrictions on "hate speech."' But I cannot agree with him about physician-assisted suicide, no matter how narrowly he frames the issue.2
The 'Right To Die': A Catchy But Confusing Slogan, Yale Kamisar
The 'Right To Die': A Catchy But Confusing Slogan, Yale Kamisar
Articles
Some 30 years ago an eminent constitutional law scholar Charles L. Black, Jr., spoke of "toiling uphill against that heaviest of all argumental weights-the weight of a slogan. I am reminded of that observation when I confront the slogan the "right to die." Few rallying cries or slogans are more appealing and seductive than the "right to die." But few are more fuzzy, more misleading, and more misunderstood.
Assisted Suicide And Euthanasia: The Cases Are In The Pipeline, Yale Kamisar
Assisted Suicide And Euthanasia: The Cases Are In The Pipeline, Yale Kamisar
Articles
When I first wrote about this subject 36 years ago, the chance that any state would legalize assisted suicide or active voluntary euthanasia seemed minuscule. The possibility that any court would find these activities protected by the Due Process Clause seemed so remote as to be almost inconceivable. Not anymore. Before this decade ends, at least several states probably will decriminalize assisted suicide and/or active voluntary euthanasia. [Editor's note: In November, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide, allowing doctors to prescribe lethal medication for competent, terminally ill adults who request it.] A distinct possibility also exists that …
Are Laws Against Assisted Suicide Unconstitutional?, Yale Kamisar
Are Laws Against Assisted Suicide Unconstitutional?, Yale Kamisar
Articles
On 15 February of this year, shortly after the number of people Dr. Jack Kevorkian had helped to commit suicide swelled to fifteen, the Michigan legislature passed a law, effective that very day, making assisted suicide a felony punishable by up to four years in prison. The law, which is automatically repealed six months after a newly established commission on death and dying recommends permanent legislation, prohibits anyone with knowledge that another person intends to commit suicide from "intentionally providing the physical means" by which the other person does so or from "intentionally participat[ing] in a physical act" by which …
Drawing A Line Between Killing And Letting Die: The Law, And Law Reform, On Medically Assisted Dying, Lawrence O. Gostin
Drawing A Line Between Killing And Letting Die: The Law, And Law Reform, On Medically Assisted Dying, Lawrence O. Gostin
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Traditional medical ethics and law draw a sharp distinction between allowing a patient to die and helping her die. Withholding or withdrawing life sustaining treatment, such as by abating technological nutrition, hydration or respiration, will cause death as surely as a lethal injection. The former, however, is a constitutional right for a competent or once-competent patient, while the latter poses a risk of serious criminal or civil liability for the physician, even if the patient requests it.
When Is There A Constitutional 'Right To Die'? When Is There No Constitutional 'Right To Live'?, Yale Kamisar
When Is There A Constitutional 'Right To Die'? When Is There No Constitutional 'Right To Live'?, Yale Kamisar
Articles
When I am invited to participate in conferences on the "right to die," I suspect that the organizers of such gatherings expect me to fill what might be called the " 'slippery slope' slot" on the program or, more generally, to articulate the "conservative" position on this controversial matter. These expectations are hardly surprising. The "right to die" is a euphemism for what almost everybody used to call a form of euthanasia-" passive" or "negative" or "indirect" euthanasia-and some thirty years ago, in the course of raising various objections to proposed euthanasia legislation, I advanced the "thin edge of the …