Britannica
Sources used in this answer
- Assisted suicide
- MAID: Medical aid in dying - Oregon
- MAID: Medical aid in dying - Con: Southern Baptist Convention
- MAID: Medical aid in dying - Pro 3: MAID ensures thoughtful regulation of the practice.
- euthanasia: Top Questions
- MAID: Medical aid in dying - Con: Greek Orthodox
- health law - Relationship of law and ethics
- paternalism - Moral considerations of paternalism
- MAID: Medical aid in dying - June 25, 1990Ā -Ā Supreme Court upholds the right to refuse life saving medical service
Why can states prohibit physician-assisted suicide even when patients may refuse medical treatment?
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Bioethics
A Roman bust of Hippocrates, copied from a Greek original, c. 3rd century bce; in the collection of the AntichitĆ di Ostia, Italy.
In the context of bioethics and applied ethics, the legal distinction between refusing medical treatment and seeking physician-assisted suicide is rooted in both constitutional law and the stateās interest in protecting vulnerable populations.1
While the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that competent individuals have a constitutionally protected right to refuse any medical treatmentāeven if that refusal leads to deathāit has also held that states may constitutionally prohibit assisted suicide. The rationale for this difference includes:12
- Protection of Vulnerable Populations: States have a legitimate interest in preventing the potential abuse of assisted suicide. There is concern that the practice could be extended to vulnerable groups, such as the disabled or those incapable of giving genuine informed consent, or that patients might feel pressured to end their lives due to financial or emotional burdens on their families.31
- Distinction in Action: Refusing treatment is often viewed as allowing a natural death to occur by withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining measures, whereas assisted suicide involves an active intervention to end life.345
- State Authority: Following the ruling in Washington v. Glucksberg (1997), the Supreme Court determined that because there is no constitutional right to assisted suicide, individual states retain the authority to decide whether to permit or prohibit the practice based on their own ethical and policy considerations.31