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The Constitution and Hastening Inevitable Death
Author(s) -
Sedler Robert A.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
hastings center report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1552-146X
pISSN - 0093-0334
DOI - 10.2307/3562062
Subject(s) - terminally ill , constitution , law , right to die , assisted suicide , due process clause , substantive due process , medicine , political science , palliative care , nursing
The due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects the right of terminally ill persons to hasten their inevitable death. In prohibiting physicians from prescribing lethal medications by which such patients might hasten death, Michigan's ban on “assisted suicide” unconstitutionally imposes an “undue burden” on the exercise of that right.