X-Message-Number: 7113
Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996 20:39:29 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: California case update

The following is an edited (shortened) version of a UPI report.

US Supreme Court rejects assisted suicide case

(UPI / MICHAEL KIRKLAND)

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 -- The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the appeal
of a lower-court ruling in Los Angeles that recognizes an individual's right
to choose the manner of his or her own death, and the right to be assisted
in suicide by a physician.  The case has completed only the trial stage.

Monday's refusal means the justices will not hear the case at least before
it is decided at the federal appellate level, if then, but does not affect
the Supreme Court's decision to hear argument this term in similar cases out
of New York and Washington state.  Last month, the justices refused to
expedite review in the Los
Angeles case.

"John Doe," a man in his 30s, was diagnosed as HIV-positive in July 1984,
and as having full-blown AIDS Jan. 1, 1993.... Doe filed a complaint in U.S.
District Court in Los Angeles in October 1994 claiming that state law
banning assisted suicide is
unconstitutional....

Relying on a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in a Washington state
case, U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall in Los Angeles ruled for Doe....
Applying Supreme Court precedent on challenging state restrictions to
abortion, Marshall ruled that the California law banning assisted suicide
violated the due process, or fair hearing, provisions of the 14th Amendment.
But Marshall stayed the ruling until it could be appealed to the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals or until the Supreme Court could consider it.  The
appellate court then put the appeal on its October docket.

Since the case began, however, the Supreme Court has agreed to review the
issue of whether someone has a constitutional right to die and whether
states have the right to ban assisted suicide. The justices will hear
argument later this term in the Washington state case and on a less-sweeping
decision that invalidated New York's ban on assisted suicide.


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