Right to Die: The Law of End-of-Life Decisionmaking

I am pleased and delighted to join law professors Alan Meisel and Kathy Cerminara as a co-author on the Right to Die: The Law of End-of-Life Decisionmaking.  This legal treatise is THE authoritative reference source on end-of-life medical matters.



The publisher, Wolters Kluwer, provides the following description: 

The Right to Die, Third Edition analyzes the statutory and case law surrounding the profound issues of end-of-life decisionmaking. Whether the situation calls for long-term planning or quick, unexpected decisionmaking, this cogent, one source treatise guides you through all the available channels for helping your clients reach the ultimate resolution.

This comprehensive edition guides general practitioners, elder law, health law, and health care professionals through complex issues pertaining to passive and active hastening of death and such subsequent statutes as The Oregon Death with Dignity Act.

The first edition of The Right to Die was published in 1989.  The second edition was published in 1995.  The third edition was published in 2004.  The treatise now spans 1400 pages and is updated annually.  It is divided into thirteen chapters:

1. What is the Right to Die


2. Nature and Sources of the Right to Die


3. The Appropriate Forum for End-of-Life Decisionmaking: Courts or Clinical Settings


4. Decisionmaking Standards for Incompetent Patients


5. Limitations on End-of-Life Decisionmaking


6. Application of End-of-Life Principles to Particular Treatments and Illnesses


7. Advance Directives


8. Surrogate (Family) Decisionmaking Statutes


9. Decisionmaking for Children


10. Decisionmaking for Handicapped Newborns


11. Civil Liability


12. Criminal Liability: Assisted Suicide and Active Euthanasia


13. The Problem of 'Futile' Medical Treatment