Read the Whole Syllabus

Skill Development: Creating Web Pages

Skill Reading: Read all the sections under "Homepage Construction" at http://www.webteacher.org/windows.html

Discussion Content: Law & the Final Stages of Life

At an accelerating pace over the past 50 years advances in medical technology have allowed us to postpone death. Where once the elderly cancer patient would have died within weeks of metastasis, now she can be kept alive for months, even years. Where once the accident victim, consigned to a vegetative state, would have quickly succumbed to starvation and dehydration, now he can "live" indefinitely. Such advances are nothing less than medical miracles and, in the abstract, we have greeted each new advance with a public stamp of approval, for few of us wish to die.

At the same time, in particular, real instances, these medical miracles often become little more than hell on earth for the person and family of the terminally ill patient caught in the grip of excruciating pain, loss of bodily function, or drug-induced delirium. These two sides of the same coin set up a particularly difficult social dilemma. And, as we all know by now, in the words of our old friend de Tocqueville, "[s]carcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question." Thus, even an event as private (some would say, as lonely) as death becomes the stuff of legal fodder. And so, for roughly the past quarter century, from the Quinlan's fight to remove their daughter from life supports to the conviction and imprisonment of "Doctor Death" Kevorkian in 1999, the law has tried piecemeal to deal with this most sensitive of issues. Of course, the problem, as ever, is one of liberty v. order. On the one hand, we, as individuals, want to be able to control the last stage of our existence, no less than the rest. On the other hand, though, society has a very real interest in preserving life. The role of law is to resolve the tension between these two sometimes conflicting aims. Can it?

Search and Reading Assignment Part 1: Using web-based materials find and submit via e-mail brief definitions for the following terms: INVOLUNTARY ACTIVE EUTHANASIA, VOLUNTARY ACTIVE EUTHANASIA, ASSISTED SUICIDE, WITHDRAWAL OR WITHHOLDING OF MEDICAL TREATMENT (be sure to submit the address and full citation for your source[s]). Part 2: Find the 1997 Supreme Court cases WASHINGTON v. GLUCKSBERG and VACCO v. QUILL. In a 1-2 page essay answer the following questions: 1) What were these cases about? 2) Does an individual have a constitutional right to request the withdrawal or withholding of medical treatment? 3) Is there a constitutional right to physician assisted suicide? 4) As the law stands now, what, if any, entity[ies] has the authority to ban or legalize assisted suicide? (be sure to submit the address[es] and citations your source[s]). E-mail your responses to Parts 1 and 2 by Tuesday, October 15 at 6P.M.

WebChat: See assignment on WebChat, Week of October 14. Your WebChat contribution must be submitted by Saturday, October 19^th at midnight.

Cross-Campus Research: Your joint thesis statements and bibliographies will be returned with comments by Friday, October 18^th.

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Last Updated:  10/02/02