Law Commons^™

One Way To Be Born? Legislative Inaction And The Posthumous Child, Karin M. Mika

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article argues that the posthumous child and the rights and responsibilities relating to such a child are directly related to the fundamental right to procreate. It argues that legislation must necessarily incorporate that right in sorting out issues related to the posthumous child and deviate from the standard principles of contract laws which have been applied in the past. This article examines the history, case law, federal decisions, and current legislation pertaining to artificial insemination. It argues that such legislation is inadequate and that legislatures must act promptly to address the realities of the posthumous child.

Assisted Reproductive Technology And The Threat To The Traditional Family, Radhika Rao

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Law And Ignorance: Genetic Therapy And The Legal Process, Roger B. Dworkin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The 'Right To Die': On Drawing (And Erasing) Lines, Yale Kamisar

Articles

Until this year, no state or federal appellate court had ever held that there was a right to assisted suicide no matter how narrow the circumstances or stringent the conditions. In 1996, however, within the span of a single month, two federal courts of appeals so held; in an 8-3 majority of the Ninth Circuit (sitting en banc) in Compassion in Dying v. Washington and a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit in Quill v. Vacco. What heartened proponents of a right to physician-assisted suicide even more, and pleased those resistant to the idea even less, was that the two …

The Right To Die In America: Sloganeering From Quinlan And Cruzan To Quill And Kevorkian, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

The topic of my talk is different from those you have been dealing with in this conference in one critical aspect-it's one that all of us are going to confront-we're all going to die. And death is not a subject anyone can escape because it has both professional implications-what the law should be, how we should decide disputes when they arise, and practical ones-how we should order our own lives, and what we should do to try to make our death easier if not on ourselves, at least on our loved ones.

Facilitating Choice: Judging The Physician's Role In Abortion And Suicide, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

When I was invited to give this talk I thought, "I'll just give my standard slide show on death in America." I thought I would just talk about the right to die, something I can do in my sleep, and everybody would be happy. And you probably would, since it's a pretty good speech. I am going to give it at a Pennsylvania Judges Conference in a couple of weeks, and they will like it. But it is not very challenging, either for me or for you. So, what I want to explore with you today is how judges have …

Medicine And Human Rights: Reflections On The Fiftieth Anniversary Of The Doctors’ Trial, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

1996 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the commencement of the trial of Nazi physicians at Nuremberg, a trial that has been variously designated as the "Doctors' Trial" and the "Medical Case." In addition to documenting atrocities committed by physicians and scientists during WWII, the most significant contribution of the trial has come to be known as the "Nuremberg Code," a judicial codification of 10 prerequisites for the moral and legal use of human beings in experiments. Anniversaries provide us with an opportunity to reflect upon the past, but they also ena ble us to renew our efforts to plan for …

Physician Assisted Suicide: A Bad Idea, 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. I shall discuss five common reasons - and explain why I do not find any of them convincing.

It Started With Quinlan: The Ever Expanding 'Right To Die', Yale Kamisar

Articles

Few rallying cries sound more straightforward than the "right to die"-but few are more fuzzy or more misunderstood. This becomes all too evident when comparing the right-to-die decision handed down by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month and the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision in the Karen Ann Quinlan case twenty years ago. At different times, the "right to die" has embraced significantly different rights. On March 6, in Compassion in Dying v. Washington State, the Ninth Circuit held that because a Washington state statute prohibiting assisted suicide prevents physicians from providing assistance to competent, terminally …

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.

Beyond Autonomy: Coercion And Morality In Clinical Relationships, Maxwell Gregg Bloche

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article considers the problem of line-drawing between autonomy-preserving and autonomy-negating influence in clinical relationships. The author’s purpose is not to propose particular boundaries, either with respect to reproductive decisions by HIV-infected women or for other clinical choices. Rather, he attempts to shed some light on what drives our disputes about whether one or another influence method is compatible with autonomous choice.

The author argues that such disagreements reflect underlying conflicts between normative commitments, and that resolving these conflicts is essential to settling controversies over whether particular influences unduly interfere with autonomous choice. Alternative understandings of the prerequisites for autonomous …