Can Others Exercise an Incapacitated Patient's Right to Die

Ellman's article is one of four in this issue of the Hastings Center Report on the first right to die case to come before the U.S. Supreme Court. The author, a law professor, agrees with critics that the Missouri Supreme Court erred in Cruzan when it declined to grant the parents of a woman in a persistent vegetative state authority to halt her tube feedings. However, he believes that in order to overturn Cruzan, the U.S. Supreme Court would have to wrongly and dangerously hold that Missouri is obliged to follow the family's instructions, even if Cruzan's wishes are unknown. Ellman warns against recognizing a third party's claim to exercise an individual's constitutional right to decide about medical care on her behalf. He argues that this right, emerging from a principle of self determination, can apply only to decisions concerning oneself, and cannot be exercised by another

Constitutional right · Political science · Right to die · Sociology · State (computer science) · Supreme court · Computer Science · Ethics in medical practice · Law