Doctors, Patients and the Constitution: A Theoretical Analysis of the Physician's Role in “Private” Reproductive Decisions

Authors

Susan Frelich Appleton, Washington University School of Law

Publication Title

Washington University Law Quarterly

Abstract

This Article examines the role of the physician and current medical practice in the changing legal status of abortion restrictions. In doing so, this Article considers "constitutional privacy" from a perspective different from other inquiries, which almost always emphasize the individual patient as the right-holder, and concludes that, at least in the abortion context, the Court's vision of privacy consistently makes the doctor, not his patient, the centerpiece of the analysis.

Recommended Citation

Susan Frelich Appleton, Doctors, Patients and the Constitution: A Theoretical Analysis of the Physician's Role in “Private” Reproductive Decisions, 63 Wash. U. L. Q. 183 (1985).
Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol63/iss2/2