Right to die too complex for court
Article Abstract:
The US Supreme Court will apparently decline to speak on the right to physician-assisted suicide. The justices feel it is difficult to attach constitutional rights to the assisted suicide debate and feel the debate should take place in the political process. The seminal question is patients' right to go beyond the refusal of treatment and the Supreme Court cannot rule on it without seeming like a national medical ethics board. State legislatures, guided by medical experts and the interested public, can make such rules.
Publication Name: The National Law Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0162-7325
Year: 1997
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High court must hear assisted suicide case
Article Abstract:
The US Supreme Court should review the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit's ruling in favor of physician-assisted suicide in Compassion in Dying v. Washington. The 9th Circuit felt that deciding the time and manner of one's passing was a constitutionally protected due process right. Basing their ruling on the Cruzan case was a mistake for the judges as Cruzan dealt with the right to refuse treatment, not the right to suicide. Society must debate physician-assisted suicide at length before it is allowed.
Publication Name: The National Law Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0162-7325
Year: 1996
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Treat HMOs as insurance entities, not medics
Article Abstract:
The clinical element of health plan benefit activities comes in deciding how to use collective plan funds appropriately, only medical professionals, not benefits professionals, are authorized to diagnose and treat medical problems. Health plans are business entities which act only as financial fiduciaries for plan members and it is thus inappropriate to extend to them medical malpractice-type liability.
Publication Name: The National Law Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0162-7325
Year: 1998
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