Opinion ID: 1143517
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: who can exercise an incompetent's right to refuse medical treatment

Text: The court of appeals held that either a family member or a guardian could exercise Rasmussen's right to refuse medical treatment. 154 Ariz. at 205, 741 P.2d at 672. [19] Its decision was based on United States Supreme Court cases holding that a third party has standing to assert the constitutional rights of others if a substantial relationship exists between the claimant and the third party, assertion of the constitutional right by the claimant is impossible, and the claimant's constitutional right will be diluted if the third party is not allowed to assert it. See Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 92 S.Ct. 1029, 31 L.Ed.2d 349 (1972); Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965); NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 U.S. 449, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488 (1958). We need not decide today whether a family member could or could not exercise Rasmussen's right to refuse medical treatment because no family member ever attempted to do so in this case. The facts of this case limit our review to a determination only of whether the Public Fiduciary as guardian could vicariously exercise Rasmussen's right to refuse medical treatment. Although the above-cited caselaw gives the Public Fiduciary standing to assert Rasmussen's right to refuse medical treatment, we disagree with the court of appeals that it permits the Public Fiduciary to exercise that right. As the guardian ad litem noted: The logical extension of the Court of Appeals['] reasoning is that the person with standing to assert a constitutional right in court could also make the decision for the third person as to whether they could or should receive contraceptives or become a member of the NAACP. Obviously, this is not the reasoning of the Supreme Court of the United States....