There is widespread precedence for the legalization of assisted dying as evident via U.S. Supreme Court rulings, state legislative acts and state court decisions. In the case of the Federal Supreme Court, two cases appealing circuit court rulings against assisted suicide were overturned in 1997 per the University of Buffalo Center for Clinical Ethics. Moreover, these Supreme Court rulings also gave power to the states to decide whether a right to die existed or not per the University of Missouri. A 2006 Supreme Court decision further cleared the way for states to legalize assisted suicide in Gonzalez vs Oregon in which the Controlled Substances Act was deemed inadequate justification for not allowing assisted suicide.
The State of Oregon was the first U.S state to pass legislation legalizing assisted suicide. Specifically, The Death with Dignity Act was passed by the Oregon legislature in 1997. According to the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization (ERGO), Washington State legalized assisted suicide in 2008, however those seeking assisted dying must be Washington residents. Moreover, several additional states also allow assisted suicide within more limited legal parameters. Moreover, although assisted dying is not legal in these states, it is not illegal either, hence legality may be tried on a case by case basis via case law.
Although court ruling and legislation does make assisted suicide legal in some instances, it is not a national right. Furthermore, assisted suicide is not the same as euthanasia which is an act that directly leads to the death of a person by someone other than the person themselves. According to The Atlantic, opponents of assisted suicide fear that it opens the door to both voluntary and involuntary euthanasia by providing greater basis for the transition from assisted dying to legalized killing.
An underlying concern expressed by the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund or DREDF, is that by giving the power of death to medical providers rather than the individual or the state, motives such as hospital profits, and third party opinions can lead to euthanasia that may not be in the interests of a patient. Yet despite this concern, and as the Atlantic points out, this has not become a problem in countries such as the Netherlands where both assisted suicide and euthanasia are legal.
Additional arguments against assisted suicide include moral and religious grounds per the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. For example, practitioners of the Catholic faith believe suicide is a sin and this personal belief does have the potential to influence legal reasoning via political channels. In addition, case law does exist supporting the illegality, and allowing the prosecution of assisted suicide in four states according to ERGO. Thus, in the United States, opinion, belief and law are divided on the issue. Even so, U.S. Law is still in theory, a secularly defined practice and is therefore not a matter of individual belief, and in cases where assisted dying is found to be manslaughter, the definition of the term is stretched beyond its original meaning.
US Legal discusses the meaning of voluntary manslaughter as involving provocation, sudden passion, and self-defense. The notion of assisted suicide does not fit into this context because these elements are not present. Moreover, assisted dying is generally neither provoked, an irrational decision, nor an act of violence. Rather assisted suicide is intended to be a logically based, and joint decision, in the context of terminally ill patients that are losing physical capacity. Even if the case law of some states does allow prosecution of assisted dying, the circumstances in which the event occurs can make new cases weak. For example, if legal documents such as do not resuscitate orders, and medical power of attorney exist in one case but not another, the former provides legal basis allowing what could be considered manslaughter, when it is instead compliance with a patients rights. For instance, if a patient is on life-support that would lead to a patient’s death if removed, medical power of attorney grants the right to allow the removal of that life-support which by some definitions, could be considered manslaughter.
