The calculus of consent.

The president of Concern for Dying is one of four authors in this issue of the Hastings Center Report to write about Cruzan v. Harmon. This Missouri Supreme Court decision involving a family's request for permission to halt artificial feeding of a woman in a persistent vegetative state was the first right to die case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. Employing a constitutional vision of individual freedom versus the power of the state, Scofield discusses the state court's decision that favored Missouri's interest in preserving Cruzan's life over her and her family's interests in permitting her to die. He aruges that the Missouri court failed to appreciate the "central and dual role" of privacy and consent in protecting self determination and in preventing the state from exercising too much authority over individuals.