Compassion in Dying v. State of Washington.

U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Abstract
KIE:
The U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, reversed a district court decision that had declared
unconstitutional a Washington state statute making it a felony knowingly to cause or aid another
person to attempt suicide. The lower court had invalidated the statute on the basis that it violated the
plaintiffs' Fourteenth Amendment liberty and equal protection rights and had likened the right to
commit suicide to the right to an abortion. The district court also found that no constitutional
distinction could be made between the competent terminally ill who could elect to end their lives by
having life support discontinued and the terminally ill seeking physician assistance to commit
suicide. The Court of Appeals held that the statute did not deprive persons seeking physician-
assisted suicide of constitutionally protected liberty interest and that facial invalidation of the statute
was unwarranted.