In the “Brother Fox case,” the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York for the Second Department, in a thoughtful and exhaustive opinion, announced several rulings of significance affecting the treatment of the terminally ill. The decision dealt with both competent and incompetent patients, but is especially relevant to more complex problems associated with the incompetent patient.

The court held that a competent terminally ill patient was entitled to refuse medical treatment and, that a competent person might lawfully direct that treatment be withheld should he later become terminally ill and incompetent. The court then declared that these rights were of constitutional dimension, embodied in the constitutional right of privacy, and not based on a mere common law “bodily right of self determination.”