Right-to-die policies in the American states : judicial and legislative innovation / J. Donald Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, J. Donald, 1969-

Series:

American legal institutions.

American legal institutions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Right to die--United States--States.

Right to die.

Right to die--Government policy--United States--States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (322 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : LFB Scholarly Pub., 2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Citing cases illustrating the contentious legal issues that modern medicine's ability to prolong the dying process has raised for end-of- life medical decision-making, Smith (political science, U. of North Texas) overviews the history of the US right-to-die movement, and the link between legislative and judicial policies. Applying event history analysis and his typology of policy innovations in a rare empirical study of the diffusion of judicial doctrines and policies, he seeks to explain the determinants of states' permissive policy adoption and reinvention via study of right- to-die policies of the late 1970s to 1994 relating to living will, proxy, and surrogate laws/statutes. Policy salience was found to be a crucial variable. Appends a listing of right-to-die statutes by State, and methodological notes. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Contents:

Medical decision-making and the terminally ill

A theory of policy adoption and reinvention

Research design and methods

Legislative innovation and reinvention

Judicial innovation and reinvention

Judicial and legislative interaction

Conclusion.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-301) and index.

ISBN:

1-59332-021-3

OCLC:

228042411