NEW HAMPSHIRE RIGHT TO LIFE  
Press Release     For Immediate Release: June 26, 1997 
     Contact:     Philip Morrison   Betty Breuder 

SUPREME COURT RULING ON ASSISTED SUICIDE CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION

Today's Supreme Court ruling upholding the constitutionality of bans on assisted suicide is cause for celebration, according local pro-life leaders. "The Court's decision shows what most Americans have known all along, the Constitution does not contain a right to commit suicide or to allow others to assist in one," NHRTL President Philip Morrison said.

Morrison made his comments as the Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in two cases, Washington v. Glucksberg (State of Washington) and Vacco v. Quill (State of New York), which challenged the constitutionality of bans on doctor-assisted suicide.

Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote "...in almost every Western democracy it is a crime to assist a suicide. The States' assisted-suicide bans are not innovations. Rather, they are longstanding expressions of the States' commitment to the protection and preservation of all human life... `[T]he states, indeed, all civilized nations, demonstrate their commitment to life...'"

"The idea that there are lives unworthy of being lived does not hold water in any compassionate society," Morrison said. "Those who argue that doctors have a responsibility to help kill terminally ill, elderly and disabled patients ignore the centuries-old wisdom of the Hippocratic Oath, of which the first principle is above all, do no harm.

"Interestingly," Morrison added, "the Court correctly noted that an analysis of American legal practice and tradition does not support the notion of a right to commit suicide. But it should also be clear to any fair-minded observer that the logic used in today's ruling applies to the debate over abortion as well. In Roe v. Wade, the Court trampled on American legal practice and tradition when it declared that it was legal to kill innocent human beings. Yet today, Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote of `...commitment to the protection and preservation of all human life....' I look forward to the day when the Court's self-contradiction in these matters is finally resolved and our society shows a commitment to the protection and preservation of preborn babies."