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Selected Works

Norman Cantor

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Medical Jurisprudence

Avoiding Prolonged Dementia, Norman L. Cantor Aug 2018

Avoiding Prolonged Dementia, Norman L. Cantor

Norman Cantor

The scourge of Alzheimer's is daunting.  For me, the specter of being mired in progressively degenerative dementia is an intolerably degrading prospect. One avoidance tactic -- suicide while still competent – risks a premature demise while still enjoying a tolerable lifestyle.  The question arises whether an alternative tactic -- an advance directive declining all life-sustaining intervention once a certain point of debilitation is reached -- might be preferable as a device to avoid a prolonged, unwanted limbo.  My article in the forthcoming Hastings Center Report (HCR) presents the legal and moral foundation for my advance directive declining even simplistic interventions …

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The Relation Between Autonomy-Based Rights And Profoundly Disabled Persons, Norman L. Cantor Apr 2017

The Relation Between Autonomy-Based Rights And Profoundly Disabled Persons, Norman L. Cantor

Norman Cantor

“The Relation Between Autonomy-based Rights and Profoundly Mentally Disabled Persons” Competent persons have fundamental rights to decide about abortion, methods of contraception, and rejection of life-sustaining medical treatment. Profoundly disabled persons are so cognitively impaired that they cannot make their own serious medical decisions. Yet some courts suggest that the mentally impaired are entitled to “the same right” to choice regarding critical medical decisions as competent persons. This article discusses the puzzling question of how to relate autonomy-based rights to never-competent persons. It argues that while profoundly disabled persons cannot be entitled to make their own medical decisions, they have …

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On Kamisar, Killing, And The Future Of Physician-Assisted Death, Norman L. Cantor Apr 2017

On Kamisar, Killing, And The Future Of Physician-Assisted Death, Norman L. Cantor

Norman Cantor

In a famous 1958 article, Yale Kamisar brilliantly examined the hazards of abuse and of slippery slope extensions that subsequently, for 46 years, served to thwart legalization of physician-assisted death (PAD). This paper shows that during the same period law and culture have effectively accepted a variety of ways for stricken people to hasten death, with physicians involved in diverse roles. Those ways include rejection of nutrition and hydration, terminal sedation, administration of risky analgesics, and withholding or withdrawal of medical life support. If these existing lawful modes of hastening death were widely acknowledged, the pressure to legalize voluntary active …

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On Hastening Death Without Violating Legal Or Moral Prohibitions, Norman L. Cantor Apr 2017

On Hastening Death Without Violating Legal Or Moral Prohibitions, Norman L. Cantor

Norman Cantor

While the vast majority of fatally afflicted persons have a powerful wish to remain alive, some stricken persons may, for any of a host of reasons, desire to hasten death. Some persons are afflicted with chronic degenerative diseases that take a grievous toll. Chronic pain may be severe and intractable, anxiety about a future treatment regimen may be distressing, and helplessness may erode personal dignity and soil the image that the afflicted person wants to leave behind. A dying patient’s interest in hastening death is often said to be in tension with a bedrock social principle that respect for sanctity …

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Changing The Paradigm Of Advance Directives To Avoid Prolonged Dementia, Norman L. Cantor Apr 2017

Changing The Paradigm Of Advance Directives To Avoid Prolonged Dementia, Norman L. Cantor

Norman Cantor

For some people, the specter of being mired in progressively degenerative dementia is an intolerably degrading prospect. One avoidance tactic is to take steps to end one's existence while still competent. That risks a premature demise while still enjoying a tolerable lifestyle. The question arises whether an alternative tactic -- an advance directive declining all life-sustaining intervention once a certain point of debilitation is reached -- might be preferable. This article describes the legal and moral foundation for an advance directive declining even simplistic interventions at a relatively early stage of decline. My own model directive is included.

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Honing The Emerging Right To Stop Eating And Drinking, Norman L. Cantor Mar 2017

Honing The Emerging Right To Stop Eating And Drinking, Norman L. Cantor

Norman Cantor

No abstract provided.

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Can The Right To Stop Eating And Drinking Be Implemented By A Surrogate? Mar 2017

Can The Right To Stop Eating And Drinking Be Implemented By A Surrogate?

Norman Cantor

This piece continues my exploration of the options available to avoid being mired
in deep dementia.  Previously, I spoke to actions while still competent, such as stopping
eating and drinking (SED). Here, I examine whether the right of a competent person to
stop eating and drinking can be exploited at a post-competence stage of decline by use
of an advance instruction.

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Making Advance Directives Meaningful, Norman L. Cantor Dec 1997

Making Advance Directives Meaningful, Norman L. Cantor

Norman Cantor

This article presents a "values profile" to be used together with an advanced medical directive in order to provide precise guidance to surrogate decision makers.

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