or the first time in U.S. history, in the case Washington v. Glucksberg, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th circuit in San Francisco overturned a Washington State law that made assisted suicide a felony. The existing ban on assisted suicide was successfully challenged under the equal protection clause of the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment. The court noted that, under present law, a dying patient on life support may legally have it removed to facilitate death while another dying patient, not on life support but suffering under equivalent circumstances and equally close to death, has no means by which to end his or her lives. The court, ruled that, bans on assisted suicide constitute a violation of the second patient's equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.9In his majority opinion, 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 toenvision where the exercise of arbitrary and intrusive power by the state can be halted."10Reinhardt'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."11On 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...
