Physician-Assisted Suicide and the Supreme Court: the Washington and Vacco Verdicts

This article describes the issue of physician-assisted suicide in relation to the Supreme Court, which in June 1997, decided that statutes proscribing physicians from providing lethal medication for use by competent, terminally ill patients do not violate the Due Process or Equal Protection Clauses of the Constitution. The authors argue that the Court returned the question of physician-assisted suicide to the states but did not foreclose future review of state laws that may be too restrictive of care at the end of life. (22 refs)