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 9^th Circuit en banc panel ruled that a State of Washington statute prohibiting physician-assisted suicide violated 14^th 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 9^th 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