SECOND COURT REJECTS LAWS BANNING ASSISTED SUICIDE.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. A federal appeals court in Manhattan rejected state laws banning doctor-assisted suicide Tuesday, saying it would be discriminatory to let people disconnect life-support systems while refusing to let others end their lives with medication. The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals marked the second time in two months that a federal appeals court had ruled in favor of assisted suicide assisted suicide: see euthanasia. . The issue appears headed again to the Supreme Court, which already has acted against assisted suicide in two cases from Michigan. The court said Tuesday that it struck down two New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of state laws banning physician-assisted suicide because the laws violated the Constitution by failing to treat individuals equally. It noted that patients on life-support systems can be disconnected at their request, but others who want to speed death by taking prescribed drugs are stopped. It refused, however, to declare doctor-assisted suicide a fundamental constitutional right, saying it is not ``deeply rooted in the nation's traditions and history.'' A federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled last month that mentally competent, terminally ill Terminally Ill When a person is not expected to live more than 12 months. Notes: Any gifts given out by the afflicted person at this time may be considered as a dispersion of the estate rather than a gift. adults have a constitutional right to die, striking down Washington state's ban. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear Dr. Jack Kevorkian's appeal of a Michigan Supreme Court The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is known as Michigan's "court of last resort" and consists of seven justices, who are elected to eight-year terms. Candidates are nominated by political parties and are elected on a nonpartisan ballot. ruling that said there is no constitutional right to assisted suicide. The high court also turned down a challenge to Michigan's law against assisted suicide. Justice Antonin Scalia, at a lecture Tuesday in Bridgewater, Va., said the Supreme Court isn't the proper place for the right to die to be decided; it should come, he said, through constitutional amendments or state and federal law. The 2nd Circuit rejected a 1994 ruling by U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Griesa, who said allowing life-sustaining equipment to be removed was permitting nature to take its course. ``The withdrawal of nutrition brings on death by starvation, the withdrawal of hydration hydration /hy·dra·tion/ (hi-dra´shun) the absorption of or combination with water. hy·dra·tion n. 1. The addition of water to a chemical molecule without hydrolysis. 2. brings on death by dehydration and the withdrawal of ventilation brings about respiratory failure Respiratory Failure Definition Respiratory failure is nearly any condition that affects breathing function or the lungs themselves and can result in failure of the lungs to function properly. ,'' the three-judge panel wrote. ``The ending of life by these means is nothing more nor less than assisted suicide.'' |
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