by Wendy K. Mariner

About the author: Wendy K. Mariner is a professor of health law at Boston University's Schools of Medicine and Public Health. She is a contributing editor for health law and ethics of the American Journal of Public Health.

The Health Law Department at Boston University’s School of Public Health has long championed patients’ rights. Department Chair George J. Annas, the Edward Utley Professor of Health Law, wrote the book on The Rights of Patients—literally. So it may have surprised some observers to see three of the department’s faculty members writing a brief amicus curiae to the United States Supreme Court arguing against a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. In fact, Professors Annas and Leonard H...