New York’s Highest Court Unanimously Upholds State Ban on Physician-Assisted Suicide
New York’s highest court has unanimously upheld the state’s ban on physician-assisted suicide, concluding that it does not violate New York’s Constitution.
The New York Court of Appeals ruled 5-0 that there is no “fundamental right to die,” and that the provision of lethal pills from a physician falls within the state’s prohibition on helping a person kill themselves.
“Although New York has long recognized a competent adult’s right to forgo life-saving medical care, we reject plaintiffs’ argument that an individual has a fundamental constitutional right to aid-in-dying as they define it,” it wrote. “We also reject plaintiff’s assertion that the state’s prohibition on assisted suicide is not rationally related to legitimate state interests.”...