Study Questions – Cruzan v. Missouri Dept. of Health

 

  1. What was the purpose of the lawsuit brought by Nancy Cruzan’s parents? (212) How did the Supreme Court of Missouri rule on this lawsuit? (212) Do you agree with the standard the court used to decide such requests?

  2. What is a battery? Explain how the doctrine of informed consent is related to the common law of battery. (212) How does the doctrine of informed consent bear on the Cruzan lawsuit?

  3. Explain the relationship between the doctrine of informed consent and Missouri’s requirement that there be clear and convincing evidence of an incompetent’s wishes with respect to withdrawal of treatment.

  4. What was the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding? (213) Whose interests did the Court consider? Did the Court fail to consider the interests of someone whose interests should be considered?

  5. The Court argued that "Missouri may permissibly place an increased risk of an erroneous decision on those seeking to terminate an incompetent individual’s life-sustaining treatment." (213) Why? Do you agree with the Court’s reasoning?

  6. Who, if anyone, was harmed by the Court’s decision? Nancy Cruzan? Her parents?

  7. Explain the grounds for Justice Brennan’s dissenting opinion. (213-14) Do you agree? Why or why not?

  8. Brennan argues that "the State has no legitimate interest in someone’s life, completely abstracted from the interest of the person living that life, that could outweigh the person’s choice to avoid medical treatment." (214) Do you agree?

  9. What interests does Brennan believe that the State has? (214) Does Missouri’s "clear and convincing evidence standard" further that interest, on Brennan’s view? (214) In what sense is the evidentiary burden "asymmetrical?" (214)

  10. What evidence did Nancy Cruzan’s parents present that she would not want to continue treatment if in a persistent vegetative state? (214) Was this enough on your view to justify removal of life support? Why or why not?

  11. Justice Stevens argues that "there is a serious question as to whether the mere persistence of their bodies is ‘life’ as that word is used in both the Constitution and Declaration of Independence." (216) Explain what he is getting at here. Do you agree? On this view of the meaning of ‘life’, would a fetus be alive?