Citation

No Author(s) Listed. Respir. Care 1998; 43(3): e176.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, American Association for Respiratory Therapy, Publisher Daedalus Enterprises)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article analyzes judicial determinations on the "right to die" from Quinlan to Cruzan, Glucksberg, and Vacco. The body of law known as right-to-die cases extends ordinary treatment refusal doctrine to end-of-life decisions. The courts, having affirmed a right to refuse lifesustaining treatment, held that certain categorical distinctions that had been drawn lacked a rational basis. No rational distinction could be made between competent versus incompetent patients, withholding versus withdrawing treatment, and ordinary versus extraordinary treatment. The courts, however, had persistently affirmed one categorical distinction: between withdrawing life-sustaining treament on the one hand and active euthanasia or physician-assisted dying on the other. In Washington versus Glucksberg and Vacco versus Quill, the Supreme Court unanimously held that physician-assisted suicide is not a fundamental liberty interest pro- tected by the Constitution. Notably, 5 members of the Court wrote or joined in concurring opinions that took a more liberal view. The Court powerfully approved aggressive palliation of pain. The Supreme Court, hinting that it would find state legalization of physician-assisted suicide constitutional, invited the nation to pursue an earnest debate on physician assistance in the dying process.

Language: en