Vacco v. Quill

The Supreme Court ruled that New York state's ban on assisted suicide did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice Rehnquist, writing for the Court, rejected the court of appeals' conclusion that removal of life support and assistance with suicide were equivalent acts: "Unlike the Court of Appeals, we think the distinction between assisting suicide and withdrawing life sustaining treatment, a distinction widely recognized and endorsed in the medical profession and our legal traditions, is both important and logical; it is certainly rational." This language was significant in that it allows states to differentiate their treatment of classes of people regardless of Fourteenth Amendment restrictions if they are able to show a reasonable and compelling reason for doing so. The Court went on to enumerate the state's rationale for forbidding assisted suicide: "prohibiting intentional killing and preserving life; preventing suicide; maintaining physicians' role as their patients' healers; protecting vulnerable people from indifference, prejudice, and psychological and financial pressure to end their lives; and avoiding a possible slide toward euthanasia."