Hon. Paul Armstrong, Bloustein School Senior Health Administration Fellow and Judge in Residence, was featured in the Winter 2026 issue of Notre Dame Lawyer (pages 79-80), a magazine for alumni.
A 1973 Notre Dame Law School graduate, Armstrong played a pivotal role in the landmark 1976 Karen Ann Quinlan case that reshaped end-of-life law in the United States. Just two years out of law school and working in private practice, Armstrong served as lead attorney for the Quinlan family after Karen’s father asked him to help seek the removal of his daughter’s life support. With no existing legal precedent to rely on, he crafted a groundbreaking argument grounded in constitutional privacy and personal autonomy, drawing from cases like Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade to assert that individuals—and by extension their families or guardians—have the right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment.
At the Bloustein School, Armstrong teaches Health Care Ethics to graduate-level students.