January 18, 1997
Should physicians be allowed to give terminally ill patients lethal doses of medication? This question, more frequently on the minds of people in the US thanks to Jack Kevorkian, came before the Supreme Court on Jan 8. The nine Justices considered whether bans on physician-assisted suicide in New York and Washington states infringed on personal liberty. However, the Court was less concerned with Constitutional questions than whether their affirmation of a right to assisted suicide would lead down a “slippery slope” to euthanasia of the disabled.
Read more at The Lancet.