Baron C H
Am J Law Med. 1978 Summer;4(2):111-30.
The author focuses this Article upon the aspect of the Saikewicz decision which determines that the kind of "proxy consent" question involved in that case requires for its decision "the process of detached but passionate investigation and decision that forms the ideal on which the judicial branch of government was created." This aspect of the decision has drawn much criticism from the medical community on the ground that it embroils what doctors believe to be a medical question in the adversarial processes of the court system. The author criticizes the decision from an entirely opposite perspective, arguing that the court's opinion fails in not laying down guidelines that would assure a truly adversary process in Saikewicz-type cases. He agrees with the Saikewicz court that our democratic institutional structure and societal commitment to individual liberty require that persons not competent to consent for themselves to acts of euthanasia be protected by a process of "detached but passionate investigation and decision." However, he points out that this ideal of the court system was not realized in Saikewicz itself and is not likely to be realized in other cases without reform of some of the procedures currently being employed by the courts in "proxy consent" cases. Drawing on previous articles that he has written in related areas, he then proposes a set of guidelines that he believes not only will remove existing procedural deficiencies, but also may reform some aspects of the existing system that have drawn criticism from the medical community.
作者将本文重点放在萨克维茨案判决的一个方面，该方面认定该案件中涉及的那种“代理同意”问题，其裁决需要“公正而热忱的调查与裁决过程，而这一过程构成了创建政府司法部门的理想模式”。该判决的这一方面受到了医学界的诸多批评，理由是它将医生认为属于医学问题的内容卷入了法院系统的对抗性程序之中。作者从完全相反的角度批评了该判决，认为法院的意见存在缺陷，即没有制定出能确保在萨克维茨类案件中实现真正对抗性程序的指导方针。他认同萨克维茨案法庭的观点，即我们的民主制度结构以及社会对个人自由的承诺要求，那些无能力自行对安乐死行为给予同意的人应受到“公正而热忱的调查与裁决”程序的保护。然而，他指出，法院系统的这一理想在萨克维茨案本身并未实现，而且在其他案件中，如果不对法院目前在“代理同意”案件中所采用的某些程序进行改革，也不太可能实现。基于他此前在相关领域所撰写的文章，他随后提出了一套指导方针，他认为这套方针不仅会消除现有的程序缺陷，而且还可能对现有系统中受到医学界批评的某些方面进行改革。
