Argumentative Essay On Right To Die

Right to Die

Life or Death? I see it fitting to start off by actually explaining what “Right to Die” is. The Right to Die is a principle based on a person’s choice to terminate their life or to endure voluntary euthanasia. The two Supreme Court cases that relate to the constitutional Right to Die are Cruzan by Cruzan V. Director, Missouri Department of Health and Washington V. Glucksberg . The first of these cases is based on the constitutional right of the state to interfere with medical decisions. Whether the state has a right to withhold the parent’s decision to remove life-sustaining support from their child. While the second case argues whether the state has a right to restrict a patient’s decision to partake in Physician Assisted Suicide.

In the case of Cruzan by Cruzan V. Director, Missouri Department of Health “Right to Die” is the issue at hand. Nancy Cruzan twenty-five on January 11, 1983 was thrown from her car in a crash a few miles from her home. When police and paramedics arrived on the scene of the crash her brain had been deoxygenated for somewhere in between the time frame of twelve to fourteen minutes. Sadly

Glucksberg the right of physician assisted suicide is challenged. While not on the basis of if it was ok for the physician to assist but more so on the basis of is it legal to prescribe the amount of a drug needed to commit suicide. Washington presented a law to prohibit physician-assisted suicide. In turn was denied “ on the ground that it violated individuals, “right of privacy” and substantive liberty protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Chief Justice Rehnquist also delivered the courts opinion in this case. “The question presented in this case is whether Washington’s prohibition against “causing “ or “aiding” a suicide offends the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Which it does not. The choice of one person’s decision to end their life is constitutionally