Superintendent of Belchertown State School v. Saikewicz

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that treatment could have been withheld from a profoundly mentally retarded patient
• recognizing right to withhold life-sustaining treatment from a formerly competent adult in a permanent vegetative state
• recognizing strong interest in avoiding non-consensual bodily invasions
• recognizing strong interest in avoiding non-consensual bodily invasions
• finding six state interests, cited with approval on writ of certiorari, Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 728 & n.21, 138 L. Ed. 2d 772, 792-93 & n.21, 117 S. Ct. 2258, 2271-72 & n.21 (1997)
• wherein a severely impaired patient with a limited life expectancy was faced with a prospect of a highly risky and painful medical treatment

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).