It's Time to Reinvigorate the Constitutional Claim for Physician Assistance in Dying

Abstract

Since the Supreme Court's 1997 rejection of constitutional challenges to state bans on physician-assisted dying (PAD), dying patients' constitutional claims have been summarily rejected. This has been so whether the claimants rely on federal or state constitutional provisions relating to liberty and equal protection of the laws. I argue here that developments in end-of-life jurisprudence and practice over the last 21 years provide a foundation to refine and reinvigorate constitutional claims for PAD.