Sathya Tadinada

Period 3

7 October 2020

The Right to Live, The Right to Die

 When should life-support end? And who should decide that?

o Courts and legislators look to boundaries beyond life and death to figure out the

legality behind it.

 The right of death is a fundamental right of privacy in the constitution.

 In regard to his self-determination, if there are no compelling interests of the state, people

should be able to choose if they do not want to live.

o However, if the patient is unable to make the decision for themselves, his closest

family has the right to determine that.

 The preservation of life is a transcendental value and should take precedence before the

right of privacy.

 Right of self-determination to not be alive does not get imposed on the person to kill that

person.

 Right to life belongs to the person. If the person wishes to commit suicide, whose right is

it to deny that request?

o Self-determination should mean that the state should not intervene if the person

decides to do so.
 Abortion is a particularly challenging case because it goes to the principle of figuring out

when life begins.

 Under precedents of courts, the right to abortion falls solely on the woman. Since she has

given her body for the baby, the husband has no right to veto that right.

 Is it a viable option to present an issue of abortion to nine people with no medical

experience?

o Our society moving to a consensus that reproductive freedom is a basic human

right. And in order to defend these basic rights, the courts are necessary.

 However, the fact that certain people (who are not medically trained) are

creating laws that affect all people in a general manner isn’t right.

 What if there was a procedure that let the fetus survive outside of the woman?

o The state should not have the right to “reach inside” a woman’s body and do what

they want with the fetus.

 If the fetus was removed from the body, the woman cannot have a say in

the matter anymore.

 If the baby (born prematurely with several disabilities and defects) was in requirement of

surgery but the family wishes not to, what happens to the child?

o The child has rights and the parents (who act in the best interests of the child)

often has interests that are divergent from those of the child. In this case, the state

should intervene and preserve the life of the baby as much as possible.
Link: https://www.learner.org/series/the-constitution-that-delicate-balance/program-10-right-to-

live-right-to-die/