Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act of 2005

Under the 14th amendment to the Constitution of the United States, No State . . . shall deprive any person of life . . . without due process of law . . . nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws..

Section 5 of the 14th amendment empowers Congress to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of the amendment. The United States Supreme Court has held that under this section, while Congress may not work a substantive change in the governing law under the other sections of the 14th amendment, it may adopt remedial measures exhibiting a congruence and proportionality between the injury to be prevented or remedied and the means adopted to that end.. Tennessee v. Lane, 541 U.S. 509, 124 S. Ct. 1978, 1986 (2004) quoting City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507, 520 (1997).

to facilitate balancing the acknowledged right of persons to refuse consent to medical treatment and unwanted bodily intrusions with the right to consent to treatment, food, and fluids so as to preserve their lives; and

in circumstances in which there is a contested judicial proceeding because of a dispute about the expressed previous wishes or best interests of a person presently incapable of making known a choice concerning treatment, food, and fluids the denial of which will result in death, to provide that the fundamental due process and equal protection rights of incapacitated persons are protected by ensuring the availability of collateral review through habeas corpus proceedings.