Emedinews:Insights on Medicolegal issues:Can medical care be refused? Euthanasia and doctor assisted suicide

Can medical care be refused? Euthanasia and doctor assisted suicide

Seizing on the broad recognition of a right to refuse medical care, some have advocated expanding the right to include euthanasia and doctor–assisted suicide. In India, there is no provision of law/ethics, which permit doctor assisted suicide even for terminally ill/untreatable patient of carcinoma. In June 1997, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that there is no constitutional right to euthanasia or physician–assisted suicide. The majority view, written by Chief Justice Rehnquist, drew a distinction between the right to withdraw or withhold life–sustaining treatments as a liberty interest in being free of unwanted bodily invasion vs the right to physician–assisted suicide, which does not contain a liberty interest. The unanimity of the ruling suggests that it is unlikely to be overturned in the near future. Importantly, the Supreme Court did permit individual states to legalize these interventions.