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Full-Text Articles in Medical Jurisprudence

Physician-Assisted Suicide: The Problems Presented By The Compelling, Heartwrenching Case, Yale Kamisar Jan 1998

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?


On The Meaning And Impact Of The Physician-Assisted Suicide Cases. (Symposium: Physician-Assisted Suicide: Facing Death After Glucksberg And Quill), Yale Kamisar Jan 1998

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.


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.


"Countering Stereotypes." Review Of Medical Malpractice And The American Jury: Confronting The Myths About Jury Incompetence, Deep Pockets, And Outrageous Damage Awards, By N. Vidmar, Samuel R. Gross Jan 1997

"Countering Stereotypes." Review Of Medical Malpractice And The American Jury: Confronting The Myths About Jury Incompetence, Deep Pockets, And Outrageous Damage Awards, By N. Vidmar, Samuel R. Gross

Reviews

The story of The Medical Malpractice Trial has a place in popular American legal culture, somewhere on the shelf with Killers Who Got Off on Technicalities. The plot is simple and tragic. The protagonist is the Doctor, a good man with a flaw: He tries too hard. In the process, he makes an innocent mistake or believes he can prevent the unpreventable. In any event, he fails and the Patient dies or is permanently injured. For this unintentional error the Doctor is crucified, by the vengeful anger of the Patient or her survivors, the avarice of the plaintiffs' lawyer, the …


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 …


Physician Assisted Suicide: A Bad Idea, Yale Kamisar Jan 1996

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.


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 …


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.


Homologizing Pregnancy And Motherhood: A Consideration Of Abortion, Julia E. Hanigsberg Nov 1995

Homologizing Pregnancy And Motherhood: A Consideration Of Abortion, Julia E. Hanigsberg

Michigan Law Review

In this essay I reconsider abortion in order to bridge what initially seem to be two opposing frameworks: first, the conception of abortion as an issue of women's bodily integrity and liberty, and second, the acknowledgement of the existence and meaning of intrauterine life. The abortion choice is indeed deeply and necessarily tied to women's bodily integrity. I will discuss how taking away women's ability to control their decision not to become mothers can be severely damaging to their very sense of self, for this denial of decisionmaking divides women from their wombs and uses their wombs for a purpose …


Against Assisted Suicide - Even A Very Limited Form (Symposium: Assisted Suicide, Health Care And Medical Treatment Choices), Yale Kamisar Jan 1995

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


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.


Bioethics With A Human Face, Carl E. Schneider Oct 1994

Bioethics With A Human Face, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

This Article and the successor article I will shortly publish grow out of one reaction I have had to years of reading bioethical and legal literature. Let me begin by putting the point in its simplest, even crudest, form: That literature too often discusses the problems of health care in so disembodied and denatured a way that the patients and physicians, the family and friends, the dread and the disease are quite abstracted from the scene. The result is a literature that critically limits itself and that crucially oversimplifies the issues it confronts. There are, of course, reasons bioethical and …


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 …


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.


Should Active Euthanasia Be Legalized? No: Preserve Traditional Restraints, Yale Kamisar Jan 1993

Should Active Euthanasia Be Legalized? No: Preserve Traditional Restraints, Yale Kamisar

Articles

The distinction between letting people die and killing them by lethal injection is now an integral part of the medico-legal landscape. This is the compromise we have arrived at in the struggle to take a humane approach toward seriously ill patients while still preserving as many traditional restraints against killing as we possibly can. This may be neither the logician's or the philosopher's way to resolve the controversy, but it may nevertheless be a defensible pragmatic way to do so.


Are Laws Against Assisted Suicide Unconstitutional?, Yale Kamisar Jan 1993

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 …


Active V. Passive Euthanasia: Why Keep The Distinction?, Yale Kamisar Jan 1993

Active V. Passive Euthanasia: Why Keep The Distinction?, Yale Kamisar

Articles

In the past two decades, we have witnessed a "sea change in public, medical, and legislative judgments" about "letting die" and the "right to die." But it is no less true today than it was 35 years ago, when I first wrote about this subject, that in Anglo-American jurisprudence active euthanasia (what used to be called "mercy killing") is murder.


Bioethics And The Family: The Cautionary View From Family Law, Carl E. Schneider Jul 1992

Bioethics And The Family: The Cautionary View From Family Law, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

For many years, the field of bioethics has been specially concerned with how the authority to make medical decisions should be allocated between doctor and patient. Today the patient's power-indeed, the patient's right-is widely acknowledged, at least in principle. But this development can hardly be the last word in our thinking about how medical decisions should be made. For one thing, sometimes patients cannot speak for themselves. For another, patients· make medical decisions in contexts that significantly include more participants than just the patient and doctor. Now, as this conference demonstrates, bioethics is beginning to ask what role the patient's …


When Is There A Constitutional 'Right To Die'? When Is There No Constitutional 'Right To Live'?, Yale Kamisar Jan 1991

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 …


Final Frontier: Life, Death And Law, Yale Kamisar Jan 1991

Final Frontier: Life, Death And Law, Yale Kamisar

Book Chapters

[T]o call Nancy Cruzan's case a matter of the right to die seems strained, if not contrived. The situation is a tragic one. Cruzan has been in a persistent vegetative state since 1983, when, at the age of 25, she was in a severe car accident. Although she is able to breathe on her own, she receives all her nutrition and fluids through a feeding tube inserted into her stomach. When her parents sought to halt this life support, they were rebuffed, first by officials of the Missouri state hospital where Cruzan is a patient and ultimately by the Missouri …


Who Should Live-Or Die? Who Should Decide?, Yale Kamisar Jan 1991

Who Should Live-Or Die? Who Should Decide?, Yale Kamisar

Articles

TRIAL asked Professor Kamisar questions on legal and ethical issues surrounding the right to die, a subject attracting increasing interest across the country and around the world.


Synthesizing Related Rules From Statutes And Cases For Legal Expert Systems, Layman E. Allen, Sallyanne Payton, Charles S. Saxon Jan 1990

Synthesizing Related Rules From Statutes And Cases For Legal Expert Systems, Layman E. Allen, Sallyanne Payton, Charles S. Saxon

Articles

Different legal expert systems may be incompatible with each other: A user in characterizing the same situation by answering the questions presented in a consultation can be led to contradictory inferences. Such systems can be ”synthesized’ to help users avoid such contradictions by alerting them that other relevant systems are available to be consulted as they are responding to questions. An example of potentially incompatible, related legal expert systems is presented here - ones for the New Jersey murder statute and the celebrated Quinlan case, along with one way of synthesizing them to avoid such incompatibility.


A Proposal To Cap Tort Liability: Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Heightened Rationality, Richard S. Kuhl Jun 1987

A Proposal To Cap Tort Liability: Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Heightened Rationality, Richard S. Kuhl

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note sets forth a model statute that limits high damage awards, yet will withstand the rigors of judicial scrutiny. After presenting a brief background of the medical malpractice crisis in Part I, Part II outlines the standards of equal protection review that the courts are presently using. The Note then focuses on the constitutional challenges to caps on medical malpractice liability in Part III. Part IV discusses the values and interests that were found to be dispositive in the courts' decisions. Finally, after analyzing the criteria that must be met to ensure that a legislative limitation will survive judicial …


Medical Maloccurrence Insurance: A First Party No-Fault Insurance Proposal For Resolving The Medical Malpractice Insurance Controversy, Larry M. Pollack Jun 1987

Medical Maloccurrence Insurance: A First Party No-Fault Insurance Proposal For Resolving The Medical Malpractice Insurance Controversy, Larry M. Pollack

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note examines the broad, underlying themes of tort theory and argues that, in general, the tort system's primary responsibility should be compensation, rather than deterrence of risk taking. In so far as the production of goods and services causes injury, such losses should be shared and spread as widely and proportionately as possible. Part II discusses the history and nature of the medical malpractice insurance crisis. Part III evaluates the numerous systemic solutions suggested by various commentators. Finally, Part IV proposes a new solution: first party, no-fault medical maloccurrence insurance (MMI).


The Application Of A Due Diligence Requirement To Market Share Theory In Des Litigation, Thomas C. Willcox Apr 1986

The Application Of A Due Diligence Requirement To Market Share Theory In Des Litigation, Thomas C. Willcox

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note argues that courts should impose a due diligence requirement on plaintiffs as a prerequisite to the use of market share theory. Part I examines traditional products liability theories along with alternative theories and explains the relationship of due diligence to market share theory. Part II argues that due diligence should be a prerequisite to market share liability. Part III discusses the nature of due diligence in this context. Finally, Part IV considers various objections to a due diligence requirement and argues that they are essentially without merit.


An Empirical Analysis Of The Medical And Legal Professions' Experiences And Perceptions Of Medical And Legal Malpractice, J. Douglas Peters, Steven K. Nord, R. Donald Woodson Apr 1986

An Empirical Analysis Of The Medical And Legal Professions' Experiences And Perceptions Of Medical And Legal Malpractice, J. Douglas Peters, Steven K. Nord, R. Donald Woodson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The purpose of this study is to describe the general perceptions of doctors and lawyers regarding medical and legal malpractice. The study does not purport to draw conclusions about the statistical significance of the presented numbers and percentages. In addition, the results presented should be interpreted in light of the methodology and response rate obtained in the survey.


Some Non-Religious Views Against Proposed 'Mercy-Killing' Legislation Part Ii, Yale Kamisar Jan 1976

Some Non-Religious Views Against Proposed 'Mercy-Killing' Legislation Part Ii, Yale Kamisar

Articles

There have been and there will continue to be compelling circumstances when a doctor or relative or friend will violate The Law On The Books and, more often than not, receive protection from The Law In Action. But this is not to deny that there are other occasions when The Law On The Books operates to stay the hand of all concerned, among them situations where the patient is in fact ( 1 ) presently incurable, ( 2) beyond the aid of any respite which may come along in his life expectancy, suffering ( 3 ) intolerable and ( 4) …


Some Non-Religious Views Against Proposed 'Mercy-Killing' Legislation Part I, Yale Kamisar Jan 1976

Some Non-Religious Views Against Proposed 'Mercy-Killing' Legislation Part I, Yale Kamisar

Articles

In essence, Williams' specific proposal is that death be authorized for a person in the above situation "by giving the medical practitioner a wide discretion and trusting to his good sense." This, I submit, raises too great a risk of abuse and mistake to warrant a change in the existing law. That a proposal entails risk of mistake is hardly a conclusive reason against it. But neither is it irrelevant. Under any euthanasia program the consequences of mistake, of course, are always fatal. As I shall endeavor to show, the incidence of mistake of one kind or another is likely …