please give a response to my classmate’s discussion post. write as if he/she is your classmate.
I tried to answer the questions the best I way I understood them. Please let me know if I went off topic.
Though the U.S. Constitution is the foundation of our laws, it limits the courts decisions in dealing with cases and controversies (Hughes, n.d.). There were cases which the Constitution was questioned.
One example is the case of Cruzan v. Missouri Dept. of Health, 1990. While the Constitution protects a “person’s right to reject life-preserving medical treatment, states can regulate that interest if the regulation is reasonable” (Constitution Facts, n.d.). Nancy Cruzan fell into a vegetative state after getting into a car accident. Cruzan’s parents wanted a court order that will enable them to have the artificial hydrating and feeding equipment stopped after realizing that Nancy had no chances of recovering. Cruzan also expressed to a former housemate that if she was ever to be faced in a predicament such as this that she did not want to continue her life. According to the Missouri Living Will statute, its policy firmly believes in the preservation of life (Legal Information Institute, n.d.). If it was required by the Constitution, Cruzan’s parents could have exercised “substituted judgement”, which is “instructions regarding patients’ wishes from significant others” (Medical Dictionary, 2009).
Second example is the case of Roe v. Wade, 1973. The Constitution implies the right to privacy for a woman to make choices on abortion. Norma McCorvey “Jane Roe” wanted to get an abortion in Texas, but the state rejected it. In turn, the Supreme Court ignored the state law and viewed it as going against the Constitution of a woman’s right to choose (Constitution Facts, n.d.). The outcome of this case created the “trimester system”:
Gives a woman the right to terminate in the first three months
Allows some government regulation in the second trimester
Bans the termination in the last trimester unless a doctor deems it necessary to save her life (BBC News, 2020)
I feel strongly about a woman’s right to make decisions on abortion. In 2012, I got an abortion an abortion not because I wanted to but because of love. I did not agree in abortions and still do not agree. But because of the circumstances I was in, I had to do it. My boyfriend at that time explained the reasonings on why I had to do it. Because of my love for him I went ahead and did it. At the clinic, the nurse asked if I was pressured to do it. How can I confess to her that my boyfriend wanted me to do it and I did not want to go through it? Who would have my back if I kept the pregnancy, especially coming from a Christian family? How was he supposed to explain it to his family when they did not know I existed? It was heartbreaking and I became depressed for a while.
References
Hughes, C. (n.d.). The Court and Constitutional Interpretation. Cornerstone Address-Supreme Court Building
Legal Information Institute. (n.d.) Nancy Beth CRUZAN, by her Parents and Co-Guardians, Lester L. CRUZAN, et ux., Petitioners v. DIRECTOR, MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, et al. Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/497/261
Substituted Judgment. (n.d.). Medical Dictionary. (2009). Retrieved June 3, 2021, from https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/substituted+judgment
Constitution Facts. (n.d.). Twenty-Five Landmark Cases in Supreme Court History. Retrieved June 3, 2021, from https://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-supreme-court/landmark-cases/
BBC News. (13, October 2020). Roe v Wade: What is Supreme Court ruling on abortion? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54513499
