Is Physician Aid-in-Dying a Constitutional Right?

Abstract

SUMMARYA majority of states, including Washington and New York, have statutes that prohibit aiding suicide. This article presents the argument employed in a constitutional challenge to Washington's statute. By prohibiting mentally competent, terminally ill patients from hastening death by self-administering drugs, the state intrudes into and controls a profoundly and uniquely personal decision, one that is properly reserved to the individual, to be made in consultation with his or her doctor. This argument rests on Casey and Cruzan concerning constitutional liberty interests, and addresses the issue of equal protection. A case concerning aiding suicide in terminal illness will eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court; if a federal constitutional right is recognized, states will likely be allowed to regulate but not prohibit physician-assisted death; if not, litigation will move to states' courts, and activity will increase in state legislatures.