X-Message-Number: 7664 Date: Fri, 07 Feb 1997 11:56:40 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: More on Florida case (Fri Feb 7/97) STAY LIFTED, CASE PASSED ON TO FLORIDA SUPREME COURT WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The matter of assisted suicide has reached the Florida Supreme Court. On Thursday, Charles Hall again won the right to commit suicide with his doctor's help. Palm Beach Circuit Judge Lucy C. Brown lifted the stay that prevented the 35-year-old from taking advantage of an earlier ruling allowing him that option. Also Thursday, the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach decided not to hear the Hall case and passed it on to the state's high court. Hall sued the state last year, claiming that he has a constitutional right to determine how and when he dies. The suit asked the state not to prosecute a physician who would prescribe a fatal dose of drugs at Hall's request. He won his case in Palm Beach Circuit Court but the state appealed, which placed an automatic stay on the ruling. In her Thursday order, Brown said that if Hall were to die while his case is on appeal, "he will have been forced to suffer a miserable and degrading death, deprived of that more dignified and comfortable end to which he is now legally entitled." Within an hour of her ruling, the state filed an emergency motion to reinstate the stay. The 4th District Court of Appeal denied it. But Assistant Attorney General Michael Gross said he planned to try again at the state's high court to get the stay reinstated. If the Supreme Court upholds Brown's ruling, Hall, who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion, will be able to choose a physician-assisted death any time during the appeal process. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7664