THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 11, 1996 TAG: 9606110329
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 60 lines
The Supreme Court is letting authorities in Washington state outlaw doctor-assisted suicide while they challenge a ruling that struck down the ban.
The justices are expected to say by this fall whether they will resolve the issue for all states. If they agree to hear arguments in the Washington case, doctor-assisted suicide will remain illegal in that state until the court rules - perhaps not until mid-1997.
On Monday, the justices extended an order by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor blocking the effect of a federal appeals court ruling that declared the law unconstitutional.
The March 6 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was the first such assisted-suicide decision by any federal appeals court. The following month, another federal appeals court threw out New York's ban on doctor-assisted suicide.
The Washington assisted-suicide law is part of a ban on promoting or assisting suicide first enacted by the territorial government in 1854. It was challenged by three terminally ill patients, a group of doctors and an organization called Compassion in Dying.
The three patients have since died.
A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit court upheld the law last year, saying the ban on doctor-assisted suicide protected the poor, handicapped and elderly and prevented doctors from becoming ``killers of their patients.''
But an 11-member 9th Circuit panel reversed that ruling in March and said the law violates the constitutional right to die of mentally competent, terminally ill patients.
Another federal appeals court cited different grounds when it struck down two New York state laws banning doctor-assisted suicide in April.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals court said it would be discriminatory to allow some people to end their lives by disconnecting life-support systems but bar others from committing suicide by taking prescribed drugs. ILLUSTRATION: OTHER ACTION
In other action Monday, the court:
Ruled that police generally can stop motorists for traffic
violations even when the officers also are looking for illegal
drugs. The court unanimously upheld the convictions of two men who
said District of Columbia police stopped them on a traffic violation
as a pretext to look for drugs.
Said people who flee the country to avoid prosecution still can
defend themselves against related lawsuits in which the government
tries to seize their property. The ruling came in a case from
Nevada.
In a case involving Lockheed Corp., ruled that companies can
require employees to give up their right to sue for alleged unfair
treatment as a condition of accepting early-retirement incentives.
Refused to revive Exxon Shipping Co.'s lawsuit over an oil tanker
that ran aground in Hawaii. The justices said Exxon's negligence
caused the tanker Houston to run aground near the island of Oahu
after breaking away from its mooring in March 1989.
KEYWORDS: SUPREME COURT by CNB