Part I: Ronald Dworkin, Part II: Leonard John Deftos

In Part I of the following two-part viewpoint, Ronald Dworkin argues that the constitutional protection of privacy outlined in Roe v.Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, extends to decisions by competent patients to hasten their own deaths. He maintains that counter to the objections of pro- life protesters, constitutional protection of the right to die will not lead to involuntary euthanasia. In Part II, Leonard John Deftos contends that the right to physician assistance in hastening one’s own death has been established by previous Supreme Court decisions regarding advance directives, which protect the right to refuse unwanted medical treatment. Dworkin is a law professor at New York University and the author of Life’s Dominion: An Argument About Abortion, Euthanasia...