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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Market For Medical Ethics, Maxwell Gregg Bloche
The Market For Medical Ethics, Maxwell Gregg Bloche
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
At the core of Kenneth Arrow’s classic 1963 essay on medical uncertainty is a claim that has failed to carry the day among economists. This claim—that physician adherence to an anti-competitive ethic of fidelity to patients and suppression of pecuniary influences on clinical judgment pushes medical markets toward social optimality—has won Arrow near-iconic status among medical ethicists (and many physicians). Yet conventional wisdom among health economists, including several participants in this symposium, holds that this claim is either naïve or outdated. Health economists admire Arrow’s article for its path-breaking analysis of market failures resulting from information asymmetry, uncertainty, and moral …
The Constitutional Right To Die: Ethical Considerations, Lawrence O. Gostin
The Constitutional Right To Die: Ethical Considerations, Lawrence O. Gostin
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
In this commentary, the author first looks at some ethical reasoning supporting physician-assisted dying. Second, he examines some of the lines that have been drawn between withdrawing and withholding life-sustaining treatment on the one hand, and physician-assisted dying on the other. Finally, he relates both of these matters to constitutional reasoning, beginning with Cruzan and ending with the cases before the Supreme Court at the time of the article's publication.
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.