No constitutional right to assisted suicide: US court CMAJ 1997;157:239 © 1997 Canadian Medical Association The US Supreme Court has left decisions concerning the right to physician-assisted suicide up to the country's 50 states (see CMAJ 1997;157:169-71 [in brief / en bref]). In a ruling announced June 26, 1997, the court said terminally ill Americans do not have a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, but it did not bar states from acting on their own to legalize the process. In announcing the decision, Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote: "Throughout the nation, Americans are engaged in an earnest and profound debate about the morality, legality and practicality of physician-assisted suicide. Our holding permits this debate to continue, as it should in a democratic society." Rehnquist, whose wife died of ovarian cancer in 1991, said the discussions surrounding physician-assisted suicide involve an "earnest and profound debate." Send a letter to the editor responding to this article Envoyez une lettre à la rédaction au sujet de cet article | CMAJ August 1, 1997 (vol 157, no 3) / JAMC le 1er août 1997 (vol 157, no 3) |