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Beyond Roe: Implications for End-of-Life Decision-Making During Pregnancy
1UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL, NC, USA.
Summary
The end of Roe v. Wade impacts end-of-life care for pregnant patients. State restrictions on life-sustaining treatment decisions, often tied to fetal viability, may change without abortion legal precedents.
Area of Science:
- Medical Ethics
- Bioethics
- Legal Medicine
Background:
- The overturning of Roe v. Wade significantly impacts the autonomy of pregnant patients facing end-of-life decisions.
- Numerous states impose restrictions on withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatments for pregnant patients lacking decisional capacity.
- These restrictions often invalidate advance directives and prevent surrogate decision-making, frequently referencing fetal development or viability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the implications of the end of Roe v. Wade on end-of-life autonomy for pregnant patients.
- To examine how the invalidation of Roe v. Wade affects state restrictions on life-sustaining treatment decisions for pregnant patients.
- To explore the shift in legal arguments for patient autonomy in light of altered abortion jurisprudence.
Main Methods:
- Legal analysis of state statutes and judicial decisions concerning end-of-life treatment for pregnant patients.
- Examination of the historical reliance on abortion jurisprudence to shape restrictions on end-of-life care.
- Review of legal scholarship discussing patient autonomy and bodily integrity in medical decision-making.
Main Results:
- The end of Roe v. Wade removes the necessity for states to align end-of-life restrictions with abortion legal precedents.
- State-level restrictions on life-sustaining treatment for pregnant patients, previously influenced by abortion law, may be reevaluated or expanded.
- Legal advocacy for patient autonomy in end-of-life care will likely shift from abortion-related frameworks to broader rights to autonomy and bodily integrity.
Conclusions:
- The legal landscape for end-of-life decision-making for pregnant patients has fundamentally changed post-Roe v. Wade.
- Future legal challenges and advocacy regarding pregnant patients' end-of-life autonomy will require new legal strategies independent of abortion law.
- There is an increased need to focus on established legal principles of patient autonomy and bodily integrity in medical contexts.
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