Seattle University School of Law Digital Commons Faculty Scholarship 1-1-2010 Physician-Assisted Suicide and Dementia: The Impossibility of a Workable Regulatory Regime John B. Mitchell Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/faculty Part of the Health Law and Policy Commons Recommended Citation John B. Mitchell, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Dementia: The Impossibility of a Workable Regulatory Regime, 88 OR. L. REV. 1085 (2010). https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/faculty/158 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Seattle University School of Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Seattle University School of Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. JOHN B. MITCHELL* Physician-Assisted Suicide and Dementia: The Impossibility of a Workable Regulatory Regime Creating a physician-assisted suicide (PAS) regime for cancer, ALS, I and AIDS is relatively easy. While to be human is to be a "being-unto-death," 2 meant to suffer from the terminal malady of mortality, as a community we are comfortable with the notion that a distinct meaning adheres to the category of "terminal illness."3 And * Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law; J.D., Stanford Law School, 1970. The author wishes to thank Jean Stenfancic and Richard Delgado for their extensive suggestions; Dr. Annette Clark, J.D., Dr. Paulette Kidder, Professor of Philosophy, and Lisa Brodoff for their knowledge, penetrating questions, and insights; Kelly Kunsch and Bob Menanteaux, librarians extraordinaire, for all their help; and Lynette Driscoll Breshears and Phyllis Brazier, my very special administrative assistants.