ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 13, 1996 TAG: 9611130088
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
Terminally ill people have no constitutional right to doctor-assisted suicide, the Clinton administration told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Justice Department lawyers urged the court to reinstate laws in New York and Washington state that banned doctors from prescribing life-ending drugs for terminally ill but mentally competent people who no longer wish to live.
Lower courts struck down those laws earlier this year, and the high court has agreed to hear the states' appeals and issue a ruling by July.
President Clinton previously has said that he opposes euthanasia. Administration lawyers filed a friend-of-the-court brief in each of the two Supreme Court disputes.
``A state may conclude that it has an overriding interest in maintaining a prohibition against all assisted suicides,'' acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger wrote.
The Court recognized a constitutional right to die in 1990 when it said terminally ill people may refuse life-sustaining medical treatment.
- Associated Press
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