This 1997 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upheld Washington State’s legal ban on physician-assisted suicide "as applied to competent, terminally ill adults who wish to hasten their deaths" by obtaining medication from their doctors. The court rejected the claim that a right to commit suicide under these circumstances is a liberty interest found under the due process clause, section one of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court agreed that the State of Washington has a prevailing interest in the preservation of human life, the prevention of suicide, the integrity of the medical profession, the protection of vulnerable groups, and in avoiding a "slippery slope" into euthanasia. [Source: Washington v. Glucksberg, 117 S.Ct. 2258 (1997); see Justice O’Connor’s
concurring opinion.]
Principles & concepts: human dignity, respect for persons, autonomy, informed consent, professional integrity.
