Compassion in Dying v. State of WashingtonJoe Segen2016-12-12T00:41:57+00:00
Compassion in Dying v. State of Washington
ETHICS
A case brought in US Federal Court by a right-to-die organisation which challenged the constitutionality of laws against assisted suicide.
In an opinion authored by Judge Stephen Reinhardt, a 9th Circuit en banc panel ruled that a State of Washington statute prohibiting physician-assisted suicide violated 14th Amendment “substantive due process” because it impaired the liberty interest that one has in hastening one’s own death. The Court upheld the decision that Washington’s law against doctors assisting in a suicide by prescribing lethal drugs, was unconstitutional. The ruling established a precedent in the 9th Circuit, affecting the nine States under the court’s jurisdiction.
Formal name Ninth Circuit, 79 F.3d 790
References http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11648417 Fed Report. 1996 Mar 6;79:790-859
http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/rule-of-law/judicial-activism/cases/compassion-in-dying-v-state-of-washing
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