X-Message-Number: 6170 Date: Thu, 09 May 1996 16:45:09 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Freedom come, freedom go The following was released from the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization: The 9th Circuit U S Court of Appeals issued a stay on May 6 in the case of Compassion in Dying versus the State of Washington, which means that physician-assisted suicide of the terminally ill which the court had said on March 6 last was 'constitutional' is now on hold. Last month the 2nd Circuit US Court of Appeals also granted a stay in its similar ruling in the case of Compassion in Dying v. New York State. (this stay was for 30 days.) A statement from the 9th Circuit Judge, Stephen Reinhardt, based in San Francisco, who wrote the Opinion, says: "The state's request to stay the mandate is granted to the extent that the mandate is stayed until such time as the court determines whether to hold a full court en banc hearing in this case. If the court votes to do so, the stay shall remain in effect until the full court issues a final judgment or dissolves the stay. Otherwise, the mandate shall issue upon completion of the pending vote." Currently the 9th Circuit Judges are deciding whether all 24 of them should re-hear the case. Already eleven of them have done so, and the decision was 8-3 in saying that any state law prohibiting physician-assisted suicide was unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. <David Brandt-Erichsen> Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6170