Assisted Suicide, Liberal Individualism, and Visceral Jurisprudence: A Reply to Professor Chemerinsky
14 Pages Posted: 15 Aug 2013
Date Written: December 1, 2003
Abstract
This Reply answers a critique by Professor Erwin Chemerinsky of the Alaska Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding the state’s ban on assisted suicide. The author argues that a constitutional right to assisted suicide would have to be grounded on the detrimental assumption that disabilities make life less worthy of protection. The author also argues that recognition of a right to assisted suicide would paradoxically diminish personal freedom by exposing society’s most vulnerable members to coercion to end their lives.
Keywords: Assisted suicide, privacy, state constitutional law
JEL Classification: K14
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