Physician Assisted Suicide and Legal Issues Case Study

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Right to Die

Physician-Assisted Suicide

The case of Mildred D: The right to die

The core dilemma of 'the right to die' of Mildred D. revolves around Mildred's alleged statement to her children that she wanted no heroic means to continue her life. There is also the question of whether intravenous feeding is 'heroic' means, since removing the NG will effectively 'starve' her and ending her life before it would naturally terminate were the NG tube not removed. Food is usually not considered 'additional' means of life support, although it is debatable whether food not administered by mouth constitutes heroic means. Mildred had no living will clarifying her wishes and is now not competent to make the decision herself.

Legally, in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, "the Court considered whether Missouri could insist on proof by 'clear and convincing evidence' of a comatose patient's desire to terminate her life before allowing her family's wish to disconnect her feeding tube to be carried out" (The right to die, 2012, Exploring Constitutional Conflicts).

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In an 8-9 majority decision, the Court concluded that although "the right to die was a liberty protected by the Due Process Clause... A bare majority of the Court upheld the state's insistence upon clear and specific evidence that the patient would wish to have intravenous feeding discontinued" (The right to die, 2012, Exploring Constitutional Conflicts.).

In the Cruzan case, the findings of the Court provide ethical as well as legal guidance about how to view the administration of artificial nutrition, which it considers to be medical treatment just as much as artificial respiration: "Whether or not the techniques used to pass food and water into the patient's alimentary tract are termed 'medical treatment,' it is clear they all involve some degree of intrusion and restraint...Requiring a competent adult to endure such procedures against her will burdens the patient's liberty, dignity, and freedom to determine the course of her own treatment. Accordingly, the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause must protect, if it….....

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