Patient Autonomy, Physician Obligation, and State Licensing Authority in The Constitutional Right Not to Kill: A Response to Professor Mark L. Rienzi

In his article, The Constitutional Right Not to Kill, Professor Mark L. Rienzi persuasively asserts that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments protect individuals from being forced to participate in government-authorized killings. Drawing from several strands of diverse legal doctrines, including military conscientious objections, capital punishment, physician-assisted death, abortion, and self-defense, he demonstrates the various ways in which the state and federal governments have shielded American citizens from being required to kill against their will.