A Right to Die?

Euthanasia and assisted dying are currently among the most hotly debated topics of our time. A growing number of states in the United States have held referendums on whether physicians should be allowed to provide terminally ill patients with the means to die, and at this writing only Oregon and Washington States have done so. State legislatures have attempted to make physician-assisted suicide a distinctly illegal act. U.S. courts have tended to oppose laws banning suicide and, in some federal districts (the Second and Ninth), have recognized a right to suicide.