Jeffrey Rosen

Proponents of physician-assisted suicide argue that the right to privacy established in Supreme Court decisions regarding abortion and medical treatment extends to the right to die. In the following viewpoint, Jeffrey Rosen contends that past Supreme Court decisions regarding the right to refuse medical treatment established a legal distinction between killing a patient and allowing him or her to die. By making this distinction, he maintains, these rulings prohibit physician participation in euthanasia. Further, Rosen argues, the legalization of abortion was based on a woman’s right to privacy in decisions about reproduction, which cannot logically be extended to decisions about death and dying. Rosen is the legal affairs editor of the New Republic.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. In Rosen’s opinion, why is Judge Reinhardt...