The Role of the Courts in the Debate on Assisted Suicide: a Communitarian Approach

In the United States, constitutional rights tend to be analyzed using one of two approaches: a libertarian approach or a majoritarian approach. While a deontological approach is used by some ethicists & many ordinary people in reaching moral conclusions, such an approach plays at best only a subsidiary role in constitutional analysis; it is not a viable alternative for those dissatisfied with either of the dominant models. An alternative is a communitarian approach. Each of these models is examined in the context of right-to-die & euthanasia issues.