We congratulate the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for resisting the temptation to invent a previously unknown constitutional right to kill yourself with help from a doctor.
As the court notes in its opinion in Kligler vs. Healey this week, physician-assisted suicide belongs to the political process – to state legislators and to the voters.
Assisted suicide is not a right under the Massachusetts Constitution, the state's Supreme Judicial Court has ruled.
"Although we recognize the paramount importance and profound significance of all end-of-life decisions, after careful consideration, we conclude that the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights does not reach so far as to protect physician-assisted suicide. We conclude as well that the law of manslaughter may prohibit physician-assisted suicide, and does so, without offending constitutional protections," the court said in a decision Monday, December 19.
