On June 26, 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that individuals do not have a fundamental, constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide. This ruling reversed two previous decisions by U.S. courts of appeals. In the first case, Washington State vs. Glucksberg, the Ninth Circuit court had determined that a Washington state law prohibiting individuals from aiding in suicides was unconstitutional. The court supported its decision by concluding that individuals have a constitutionally protected right under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to control the timing and method of their death. In New York vs. Quill, in a ruling similar to the Ninth Circuit's decision, the Second Circuit court of appeals had declared unconstitutional a New York state law that prohibited assisting someone in committing suicide. The court justified its decision by arguing that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Both courts'.....
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