Quality of Life in Legal Perspective

Abstract:     
This is an update to the entry for "Quality of Life in Legal Perspective" for the 4th edition of the Encyclopedia of Bioethics. Over the past decade, the law has addressed quality-of-life issues in three key areas. First the law has continued to place limits on surrogates’ authority to direct the withholding or withdrawing of life-sustaining treatment. Second, the law has continued to constrain the scope of surrogates’ authority to request the continuation of life-sustaining treatment. Third, the law has increasingly permitted terminally ill patients with capacity to actively hasten their death.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 1

Keywords: quality of life, surrogate, ill, death, dying

JEL Classification: K00, K32

Accepted Paper Series