In March 1996, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Washington State’s law banning physician-assisted suicide (PAS) was unconstitutional. The court proclaimed that the Constitution protects the right of terminally ill patients to receive medications for the purpose of committing suicide. In April 1996, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals declared that a similar ban in New York State was also unconstitutional. These rulings were heralded as major victories by those within the right-to-die movement.

However, in early 1997 both the Washington and New York cases were appealed before the Supreme Court. In June of that year the Court issued a unanimous decision, upholding the bans on assisted suicide in both states. In rejecting the lower courts’ decisions, the justices of the Supreme Court effectively ruled that there is no constitutionally protected right to die.

Opponents of euthanasia commend the Court...