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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Right To Conscience Vs. The Right To Die: Physician-Assisted Suicide, Catholic Hospitals, And The Rising Threat To Institutional Free Exercise In Healthcare, Zachary R. Carstens Feb 2021

The Right To Conscience Vs. The Right To Die: Physician-Assisted Suicide, Catholic Hospitals, And The Rising Threat To Institutional Free Exercise In Healthcare, Zachary R. Carstens

Pepperdine Law Review

An imminent conflict is developing between religious healthcare institutions opposed to physician-assisted death (PAD) and their healthcare employees who wish to offer PAD to their patients. When these interests clash, institutional conscience claims must prevail over doctors’ desires and patients’ demands. This article catalogues the incomplete patchwork of conscience protections guaranteed to American healthcare workers and institutions, as well as the swiftly accelerating wave of PAD legalization sweeping the states. The article documents the tactical vocabulary—deployed with nearly identical language in every state PAD statute—that conspicuously anticipates con-science objections from the massive, and staunchly anti-PAD, Catholic healthcare system. Notably, in …


A Hypothetical: Quinlan Under Ohio Law, Wendy C. Gerzog Aug 2015

A Hypothetical: Quinlan Under Ohio Law, Wendy C. Gerzog

Akron Law Review

WITH THE DECISION by all of the respondents in In re Quinlan not to appeal their case to the United States Supreme Court, the people in this country will have to wait for a definitive statement of law on a person's right to die and on a guardian's standing to assert that right for his ward. Because of the dearth of precedent in this area, each state court that is faced with the prospect of reviewing a case like Quinlan will have to grapple with its own constitutional and statutory schemes in order to make a determination of these difficult …


A Hypothetical: Quinlan Under Ohio Law, Wendy C. Gerzog Aug 2015

A Hypothetical: Quinlan Under Ohio Law, Wendy C. Gerzog

Akron Law Review

WITH THE DECISION by all of the respondents in In re Quinlan1 not to appeal their case to the United States Supreme Court,2 the people in this country will have to wait for a definitive statement of law on a person's right to die and on a guardian's standing to assert that right for his ward. Because of the dearth of precedent in this area, each state court that is faced with the prospect of reviewing a case like Quinlan will have to grapple with its own constitutional and statutory schemes in order to make a determination of these difficult …


Life And Death Decision-Making: Judges V. Legislators As Sources Of Law In Bioethics, Charles Baron Aug 2013

Life And Death Decision-Making: Judges V. Legislators As Sources Of Law In Bioethics, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

In some situations, courts may be better sources of new law than legislatures. Some support for this proposition is provided by the performance of American courts in the development of law regarding the “right to die.” When confronted with the problems presented by mid-Twentieth Century technological advances in prolonging human life, American legislators were slow to act. It was the state common law courts, beginning with Quinlan in 1976, that took primary responsibility for gradually crafting new legal principles that excepted withdrawal of life-prolonging treatment from the application of general laws dealing with homicide and suicide. These courts, like the …


The Case Of Baby Andrew, Peter Singer, Helga Kuhse Apr 2013

The Case Of Baby Andrew, Peter Singer, Helga Kuhse

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


Balancing The Right To Die With Competing Interests: A Socio-Legal Enigma, Glenn W. Peterson Jan 2013

Balancing The Right To Die With Competing Interests: A Socio-Legal Enigma, Glenn W. Peterson

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Vacco V. Quill And Washington V. Glucksberg: Thou Shalt Not Kill, Unless Your State Permits Physician-Assisted Suicide , Jennifer Bradford Oct 2012

Vacco V. Quill And Washington V. Glucksberg: Thou Shalt Not Kill, Unless Your State Permits Physician-Assisted Suicide , Jennifer Bradford

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


In The Laboratory Of The States: The Progress Of Glucksberg'S Invitation To States To Address End-Of-Life Choice, Kathryn L. Tucker Jan 2008

In The Laboratory Of The States: The Progress Of Glucksberg'S Invitation To States To Address End-Of-Life Choice, Kathryn L. Tucker

Michigan Law Review

It has now been ten years since the Supreme Court handed down Glucksberg and Quill, rulings on laws that forbid "assisted suicide." In that time, normative and legal developments in the fields of law, medicine, and psychology have changed the landscape of the discourse on the choice of a mentally competent, terminally ill individual to choose to self-administer medications to bring about a peaceful death. Although the Court rejected petitioners' claims that state laws denying them the ability to end their terminal illnesses through self-administered medication violated the Constitution, it left states with the opportunity to experiment with legislation …


Physician-Assisted Suicide In Oregon: A Medical Perspective, Herbert Hendin, Kathleen Foley Jan 2008

Physician-Assisted Suicide In Oregon: A Medical Perspective, Herbert Hendin, Kathleen Foley

Michigan Law Review

This Article examines the Oregon Death with Dignity Act from a medical perspective. Drawing on case studies and information provided by doctors, families, and other care givers, it finds that seemingly reasonable safeguards for the care and protection of terminally ill patients written into the Oregon law are being circumvented. The problem lies primarily with the Oregon Public Health Division ("OPHD"), which is charged with monitoring the law. OPHD does not collect the information it would need to effectively monitor the law and in its actions and publications acts as the defender of the law rather than as the protector …


Death, Dying, And Domination, Marc Spindelman Jan 2008

Death, Dying, And Domination, Marc Spindelman

Michigan Law Review

This Article critiques conventional liberal arguments for the right to die on liberal grounds. It contends that these arguments do not go far enough to recognize and address private, and in particular structural, forms of domination. It presents an alternative that does, which is thus more respectful of true freedom in the context of death and dying, and also more consistent with liberalism. After discussing obstacles to the achievement of a right to die that encompasses freedom from both public and private domination, the Article closes with a significant reform project within bioethics that might help bring it about.


Schiavo: The Road Not Taken, Mary I. Coombs Apr 2007

Schiavo: The Road Not Taken, Mary I. Coombs

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.


Suppose The Schindlers Had Won The Schiavo Case, Alan Meisel Apr 2007

Suppose The Schindlers Had Won The Schiavo Case, Alan Meisel

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.


Ethics Schmethics: The Schiavo Case And The Culture Wars, Kenneth Goodman Apr 2007

Ethics Schmethics: The Schiavo Case And The Culture Wars, Kenneth Goodman

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.


Schiavo And Contemporary Myths About Dying, Rebecca Dresser Apr 2007

Schiavo And Contemporary Myths About Dying, Rebecca Dresser

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.


(Mis)Framing Schiavo As Discrimination Against Persons With Disabilities, Leslie Pickering Francis, Anita Silvers Apr 2007

(Mis)Framing Schiavo As Discrimination Against Persons With Disabilities, Leslie Pickering Francis, Anita Silvers

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.


Some Personal Aspects Of End-Of-Life Decisionmaking, James L. Werth Jr. Jan 2007

Some Personal Aspects Of End-Of-Life Decisionmaking, James L. Werth Jr.

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.


An Idea Whose Time Should Never Have Come, Roger B. Dworkin Jan 2005

An Idea Whose Time Should Never Have Come, Roger B. Dworkin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.


Politicizing The End Of Life: Lessons From The Schiavo Controversy, Barbara A. Noah Jan 2004

Politicizing The End Of Life: Lessons From The Schiavo Controversy, Barbara A. Noah

Faculty Scholarship

The case of Theresa Marie Schiavo raises challenging legal and ethical issues, although the events of the case are not entirely novel. It is a well-settled principle under Florida law that individuals have a right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. After years of litigation, numerous courts have confirmed that removal of life support is legally appropriate under the facts of this case. Nevertheless, six days after Theresa's feeding tube was removed, the Florida legislature
opted to intervene in the final judicial decision by granting the Governor the authority to overrule the court's decision and to order the tube reinserted. These …


Life And Death Decision-Making: Judges V. Legislators As Sources Of Law In Bioethics, Charles Baron Dec 2003

Life And Death Decision-Making: Judges V. Legislators As Sources Of Law In Bioethics, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

In some situations, courts may be better sources of new law than legislatures. Some support for this proposition is provided by the performance of American courts in the development of law regarding the “right to die.” When confronted with the problems presented by mid-Twentieth Century technological advances in prolonging human life, American legislators were slow to act. It was the state common law courts, beginning with Quinlan in 1976, that took primary responsibility for gradually crafting new legal principles that excepted withdrawal of life-prolonging treatment from the application of general laws dealing with homicide and suicide. These courts, like the …


Health Care Surrogate Statutes: Ethics Pitfalls Threaten The Interests Of Incompetent Patients, Aaron N. Krupp Sep 1998

Health Care Surrogate Statutes: Ethics Pitfalls Threaten The Interests Of Incompetent Patients, Aaron N. Krupp

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Future Of Physician-Assisted Suicide, Yale Kamisar Jan 1998

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.


Making Sausage: The Ninth Circuit's Opinion, Carl E. Schneider Jan 1997

Making Sausage: The Ninth Circuit's Opinion, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

As I write, the Supreme Court has just agreed to hear Compassion in Dying v. Washington and Quill v. Vacco, the two cases in which United States circuit courts of appeals held that a state may not constitutionally prohibit physicians from helping a terminally ill person who wishes to commit suicide to do so. These cases have already received lavish comment and criticism, and no doubt the Supreme Court's opinion will garner even more. Reasonably enough, most of this analysis addresses the merits of physician-assisted suicide as social policy. I, here, want to talk about how setting bioethical policy …


The Reasons So Many People Support Physician-Assisted Suicide - And Why These Reasons Are Not Convincing, Yale Kamisar Jan 1996

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.


The 'Right To Die': On Drawing (And Erasing) Lines, Yale Kamisar Jan 1996

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 …


It Started With Quinlan: The Ever Expanding 'Right To Die', Yale Kamisar Jan 1996

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 …


Physician Assisted Suicide: The Last Bridge To Active Voluntary Euthanasia, Yale Kamisar Jan 1995

Physician Assisted Suicide: The Last Bridge To Active Voluntary Euthanasia, Yale Kamisar

Book Chapters

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, or more misunderstood.


Incompetents And The Right To Die: In Search Of Consistent Meaningful Standards, Mark Strasser Jan 1995

Incompetents And The Right To Die: In Search Of Consistent Meaningful Standards, Mark Strasser

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Toward A More Perfect Union: A Federal Cause Of Action For Physician Aid-In-Dying, Todd David Robichaud Jan 1994

Toward A More Perfect Union: A Federal Cause Of Action For Physician Aid-In-Dying, Todd David Robichaud

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note investigates the possible foundations of a constitutional right to physician aid-in-dying triggering section 1983 protection and the opposing state interests in preventing suicide. Part II examines the nature and scope of and obstacles to a request for section 1983 relief. Finally, Part III focuses on the public policy implications associated with recognizing a federal cause of action.


The 'Right To Die': A Catchy But Confusing Slogan, Yale Kamisar Jan 1994

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 Jan 1994

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 …