Forty-nine states have passed laws regulating assisted suicide; forty-eight of them prohibit the practice. Only Oregon permits physicians to help their terminally ill patients commit suicide. In January 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court heard two cases, Compassion in Dying v. State of Washington (also known as Glucksberg v. Washington) and Quill v. Vacco, which had overturned state laws in Washington and New York banning assisted suicide. At the time of this writing, the Supreme Court’s decision was expected in the summer of 1997.

The Compassion in Dying case began in 1994, when three terminally ill patients (who have since died); their doctor, Harold Glucksberg; and the right-to-die organization Compassion in Dying filed suit against the state of Washington. The plaintiffs argued that the state’s ban on physician-assisted suicide violated the patients’ right of due process and placed an undue...