Euthanasia

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to resolve another. In the medical realm, interpretation of medical doctrine concerning treatment of terminally ill patients can result in entirely different applications.
In two relatively recent cases, the Supreme Court had to decide the future of patients that were considered to be in chronically persistent vegetative states. The courts had to decide whether to continue with the existing treatment, as advocated by the medical community, or discontinue treatment at the request of the patients’ guardians. The courts considered several factors in making a determination: What are the state’s interests in terms of human life? When does the patient’s right to refuse treatment override the state’s interest? What does the right to refuse treatment entail, and is it included in the patient’s right to privacy? Do a patient’s guardians have the right to refuse treatment on behalf of a patient? What constitutes ordinary and extraordinary medical treatment?
The court indicated ...

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of the Supreme Court in Cruzan v. Harmon (1984). In this case, the Supreme Court found that the right to refuse treatment plainly did not exist, either in the context of constitutional law, or in common law. The court determined that the common-law right to refuse treatment means that the patient must be informed, and so the conditions of that right did not exist in Cruzan. Further, the Cruzan court did not find the situation of a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy as being analogous of a decision to terminate a comatose patient, as the Quinlan court had. The Cruzan court also found that the cloudiness of privacy rights that the Quinlan court relied on to develop the right ...

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