A retrospective on Cruzan.

In 1990, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision in the Cruzan case, the first "right-to-die case" to reach that Court. Prior to the Court's decision, there was wide-spread speculation as to what it would decide and what the impact of the decision would be. Speculation about the impact of the decision intensified after it was announced, with many suggesting that it would prove to be a serious setback to the consensus about the legality of terminating life-sustaining medical treatment that had evolved in the state courts since the Karen Quinlan case ushered in the era of right-to-die litigation in 1976. This article examines a number of aspects of the legal consensus about forgoing life-sustaining treatment that emerged prior to Cruzan and discusses their viability in light both of what Cruzan did and did not decide and in light of subsequent judicial decisions in right-to-die cases. Two years after the Supreme Court's decision, it is apparent that the pre-Cruzan legal consensus is stronger than ever.