New York state’s highest court took up the contentious and emotional debate over physician-assisted suicide this week, hearing arguments in a case filed by terminally ill patients who want the right to request life-ending drugs from their physicians.
To people who have long and so far unsuccessfully lobbied for a state law authorizing physician-assisted suicide the courts represent a promising alternative. Plaintiffs want the Court of Appeals to reverse a lower-court ruling that had dismissed the challenge and argue that existing laws against assisting a suicide shouldn’t apply to those seeking merciful ends to incurable illnesses.
