Washington v. Glucksberg: Has the Supreme Court Overruled its Decision on Medical Aid in Dying?

Has the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Washington v. Glucksberg, its 1997 decision on Medical Aid in Dying? Ronald Turner has the answer in the new issue of the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy. Turner explains, "In Washington v. Glucksberg, the Court held that an asserted right to physician-assisted suicide is not a fundamental liberty interest protected by the clause because it is not a right deeply rooted in this nation's history and tradition." "More recently, in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Court held that state laws prohibiting same-sex marriage violated the Due Process Clause. In so holding, the Obergefell Court departed from Glucksberg’s history-and-tradition analysis and instead applied an evolving, generational approach in deciding the substantive due process issue before it." "Dissenting in Obergefell, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. argued that the majority had effectively overruled Glucksberg. A different view was expressed in a 2017 speech by then-Judge and now-Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh in which he argued that Glucksberg stands today as an important precedent insuring that the Court operates as a court of law and not as an institution of social policy." Turner explains that his article "examines these differing views and several post-Obergefell decisions shedding helpful but not dispositive light on this important aspect of substantive due process jurisprudence and doctrine." Turner concludes that "contrary to declarations and predicti...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs