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Drawing a Line between Killing and Letting Die: The Law, and Law Reform, on Medically Assisted Dying

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Lawrence O. Gostin
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Extract

Traditional medical ethics and law draw a sharp distinction between allowing a patient to die and helping her die. Withholding or withdrawing life sustaining treatment, such as by abating technological nutrition, hydration or respiration, will cause death as surely as a lethal injection. The former, however, is a constitutional right for a competent or once-competent patient, while the latter poses a risk of serious criminal or civil liability for the physician, even if the patient requests it.

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Article
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , Spring 1993 , pp. 94 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1993

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