Law and Ethics of End-of-Life, Death, and Human Remains

Dying is one of our most fundamental, universal human experiences, with cultural, social, and economic significance. Some of the most contentious legal and ethical debates arise in the end-of-life context. Various legal rules, many of them contested, apply to death, dying, and the treatment of the human body and human remains, particularly in the health care context. It is a particularly interesting domain to explore the role of law, and the intersection between law and ethical, social and cultural norms. It is an area where rules of criminal law, family law, administrative law, constitutional law, property law, privacy law, and other areas of law intersect; and where soft-governance systems, including health profession regulations and ethics codes, play an increasingly influential role. This seminar will explore several of the issues around death, dying and the treatment of the human body and human remains through an interdisciplinary lens, with particular attention to disability-related concerns. The seminar will start with an exploration of the socio-legal concept of death itself: when is a person legally dead and how do medicine, law, and ethics intersect in that determination? We will then discuss various issues around decision-making at the end of life, focusing particularly on the debate around the Canadian legalization of ‘Medical Assistance in Dying’ (the term used in Canada for euthanasia and assisted suicide). Other issues that will be discussed include surrogate decision-making in the end-of-life context, the status of human corpses, post-mortem organ transplantation, post-humous interests, and other related issues.