Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer

scholarly paper, I want to learn price ? details : Please answer the questions fully, in essay format, referencing materials from your texts.  Be sure to cite to cases that support your conclusions!  Please type your responses.


Part 1:  
Fully answer Questions 1 (Religious Freedom/Right to Privacy) and 

2 (Freedom of Speech, Press, Assembly) below.  

Jean and George Glorietta were recently on vacation in Kansas when they were involved in a serious car accident.  George died as a result of his injuries.  Jean, who was pregnant at the time of the accident, was in a coma for several weeks.  Jean's injuries precipitated premature labor.  The doctors unsuccessfully tried to stop her labor, but eventually delivered the baby.  It was 18 weeks gestation (40 weeks is full term).  The infant, a little girl, has a number of serious health problems.  She is on a feeding tube and a ventilator. The hospital made every attempt to contact family, but George and Jean have no living relations.  When Jean awoke from her coma, she informed the hospital that she was a member of a religious group that opposes medical intervention, preferring to leave matters of health in the hands of God.

Does Jean have a legal right to refuse further medical treatment for herself?  Does your answer change if discontinuing treatment would result in Jean’s death, but continuing treatment is likely to result in a full recovery?    

Alter the facts above and assume the hospital was able to reach Jean’s mother, Janice, prior to Jean’s regaining consciousness.  Janice, who is also a member of Jean’s religious group, tells the doctors that they must immediately remove Jean from all medical interventions.  Due to the coma, Jean is on a feeding tube.  She is breathing on her own and does not need a respirator.  Can Janice refuse the feeding tube on Jean’s behalf?  

What if George had not died in the accident and Jean is still in a coma, and George tells the hospital that he and Jean had recently left their religious order, were no longer practicing members, and that based on conversations he had with Jean prior to the accident, he believes she would want treatment?  Jean’s mother, Janice, however, objects, claiming that only George left the church and that Jean remained a faithful member.  How does Janice’s objection weigh in comparison to George’s?

Assume, again, that George died in the accident, that there are no other living relatives, and that Jean remains a devout member of her religious order.  Once she came out of her coma, did she have the right to demand that the hospital withhold further treatment for her daughter? Specifically, may Jean order the removal of the ventilator?  May Jean order removal of the feeding tube? 




Assume that the hospital refused to comply with Jean's requests regarding the child unless she obtained a court order.  Jean went to court and the district court judge ruled that Jean could not authorize the removal of the feeding tube.  Jean contacted her church.  Her congregation was very upset about the judge's ruling.  Forty members of her church decided to protest the ruling by demonstrating in front of the local courthouse.  They assembled at 7:30 in the morning.  They marched along the public sidewalks carrying posters and singing religious songs.  Six members of the group linked arms and stood in front of the main doors of the courthouse.  Police asked them to step aside.  They refused and were arrested.  One member of the group pulled the American flag down from the flag pole and burned it on the sidewalk as he shouted, "We will not respect a government that refuses to respect our religious rights!"  That protestor was also arrested.  At 3:00 in the afternoon the air-conditioning unit in the courthouse failed.  (Its failure had nothing to do with the protestors.)  Court staff was forced to open the windows in order to ventilate the building.  The protestors' singing, which previously could not be heard by persons inside the building, was now audible.  Judge Judy Johnson was conducting a hearing in her courtroom involving a child custody battle.  The mother, who had recently successfully completed a substance abuse program, was anxiously hoping for a ruling that would allow her to see her children for the first time in a year.  The father was anxiously hoping for a ruling that would keep his ex-wife away from the children because he considered her former drug problem to be a danger to the children. Both parties complained that the singing was distracting and, moreover, that it impaired the judge's ability to hear the witnesses.  Police officers asked the protestors to cease their singing.  They refused and were arrested.  The protestors claim these arrests constituted violations of their rights to religious freedom as well as their rights to freedom of speech and assembly. Do you agree?  Why or why not?  Discuss fully and cite to cases from your text book to support your legal arguments.