Assisted Suicide, Liberal Individualism, and Visceral Jurisprudence: A Reply to Professor Chemerinksy

This Reply answers a critique by Professor Erwin Chemerinsky of the Alaska Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding the state’s ban on assisted suicide. The author argues that a constitutional right to assisted suicide would have to be grounded on the detrimental assumption that disabilities make life less worthy of protection. The author also argues that recognition of a right to assisted suicide would paradoxically diminish personal freedom by exposing society’s most vulnerable members to coercion to end their lives.