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Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Dep’t Health, 497 U.S. 261 (1990)
Under the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court has held that there exists a fundamental right to refuse medical treatment that is associated with the concept of battery.
Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702 (1997)
Under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, individuals do not have a fundamental liberty interest in the availability of assistance in committing suicide, and state provisions that prohibit assisted suicide were valid if they were rationally related to legitimate government interest.
Vacco v. Quill, 521 U.S. 793 (1997)
The Supreme Court held that state criminal provisions which prevented physicians from assisting competent, terminally ill individuals in committing suicide, but allowed competent individuals to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment did not violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Gonzales v. Oregon, 546 U.S. 243 (2006)
Supreme Court did not rule on the constitutionality of euthanasia but declared the then Attorney General issued an invalid “Interpretive Rule” that made state-endorsed active euthanasia illegal. The Gonzales opinion declined to focus on the constitutionality of euthanasia but rather focused on the invalid process utilized by the attorney general and Congress’s apparent silence on the issue.
In re Quinlan, 335 A. 2d 647 (N.J. 1976)
A pivotal New Jersey decision of In re Quinlan where the court validated involuntary passive euthanasia. Since 1976, the States have responded with the acceptance an overwhelming acceptance of living wills, do not resuscitate orders and power of attorneys
Baxter v. State, 224 P.3d 1211 (Mont. 2009)
Montana is the only state who has judicially recognized a active euthanasia as a valid state right.
People v. Kevorkian, 639 N.W.2d 291 (2001)
Kevorkian shocked the conscious of American citizens in a 60 Minutes episode in which Kevorkian was seen assisting a patient in ending their life in Michigan for which he was later prosecuted and convicted.
