Right To Die :: essays research papers fc

In John A. Robertson's essay, "Cruzan: No Rights Violated," he argues that the decision made by the Missouri Supreme Court to deny Nancy Beth Cruzan's parents' request to have their daughter's artificial nutrition and hydration tube removed was not a violation of Nancy Beth Cruzan's right to refuse treatment because she had not personally refused treatment. Robertson also claims that keeping Cruzan alive with this particular medical treatment does not alienate her constitutional rights, or her parents'. Robertson states that, " A permanently vegetative patient does not have interests that can be harmed," simply because he/she cannot feel pain and doesn't know his/her present condition. Robertson then goes on to say that simply assuming that one would decline treatment in that situation because of his/her prior beliefs is not enough evidence to maintain that the directive was, in fact, released by the said person, and to relieve their self from a state law that orders such a treatment, the person must have released a directive against that particular treatment. If one were to argue that an incompetent patient has the right to have their medical treatment decided by another person on the presumption that it follows with the patient's previous beliefs, Robertson would declare that the patient is much different than they were before and does not reserve a constitutional right to be managed in the same way they would have been. In placing the right to decide Nancy's treatment in her parents' hands, her parents would be acting in their own interests according to Robertson, and in choosing to stop medical treatment of their daughter, they would be denying their child medical care deemed necessary by the state, which is illegal. With this in mind, Robertson says that the Supreme Court should not extend a family's privacy to include the refusal of necessary treatment when the [above] treatment is not causing harm to the child. Next Robertson says that if a person wants to refuse treatment while incompetent, it is their obligation to make a directive before becoming incompetent in order to refuse treatment on the principle of that particular directive, and that requiring this is "not an undue burden on persons who wish to issue directives against medical care when incompetent." If "clear evidence" does not exist in a past directive, Robertson says that providing the treatment does not alienate a person's right to regulate his/her own care because of the lack of evidence.