appellate Judge Stephen Reinhardt of Los Angeles wrote: "If broad general state policies can be used to deprive a terminally ill individual of the right to make that choice, it is hard to envision where the exercise of arbitrary and intrusive power by the state can be halted." Reinhardt's analysis relies heavily on language drawn from U.S. Supreme Court abortion case, Roe v. Wade, because the issues have "compelling similarities," he wrote. Like the decision of whether or not to have an abortion, the decision how and when to die is one of "the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime," a choice "central to personal dignity and autonomy."On April 2, 1996, in the case of Vacco v. Quill, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Second Circuit in New York struck down that state's law making it illegal for doctors to help terminally ill people end their own lives. But whereas the Ninth Circuit decision was based on the Fourteenth Amendment and privacy issues, the Second Circuit ruling in April invoked an "equal protection" argument that people suffering terminal illnesses should have the same right as those, such as Quinlan, who are in a coma and have the law on their side in the decision to halt life-sustaining nourishment or treatment. "Physicians do not fulfill the role of `killer' by prescribing drugs to hasten death," wrote Second Circuit Judge Roger J. Miner, "any more than they do by disconnecting life-support. Doctors that are involved in euthanasia take risks. They risk their licenses being taken away, they risk being sent to jail and they also have the risk of their reputations being altered. Regardless of these risks some doctors still get involved. Dr. Kevorkian was charged for murder so many times yet he still went back to helping all those people end their suffering. However, in the Netherlands although euthanasia is illegal it is very hard to prosecute a doctor for assisting. Because very strict sets of ...
