Washington v. Glucksberg

The Court's decision made it clear that the Constitution does not protect a person's right to commit suicide, thus upholding the laws of a majority of states which prohibit a person from assisting another in committing suicide.

Since the founding of the United States, a vast majority of states have upheld laws which prohibit a person from assisting another in committing suicide. Although not often enforced over much of the nation's history, these laws became the focus of an intense debate over issues of death and dying in the 1990s. Primarily, this debate focused on the right of terminally ill patients to receive assistance from doctors or others in committing suicide. In light of this debate and an apparent increase in the number of physician-assisted suicides, a number of states began to enforce their already existing, but rarely applied, assisted suicide laws. A number of other states passed new laws dealing with the issue, either banning assisted suicide altogether or severely limiting the circumstances in which it could be performed. Finally, bills to legalize physician-assisted suicide were proposed in a number of state legislatures.