Formal legal brief Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Formal legal brief - Essay Example Their demand was that the statute should be declared unconstitutional as it makes impossible to exercise the liberty interest protected under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. Both the District Court and then the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit expressed the view that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution encompasses a due process liberty interest in controlling the time and manner of one’s death, and that the Washington statute is unconstitutional when it applies to terminally ill competent adults who want to hasten their deaths. Whether the Washington state statute which holds that a person who assists in hastening the death of terminally ill people is unconstitutional as it violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? The Washing state statute which holds that a person who knowingly causes or aids another person to attempt suicide is guilty of felony of promoting suicide attempt is not unconstitutional as it does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause. The first point is that the due process clause does not protect the right to commit suicide and hence the same does not allow the right to assist in committing suicide. Secondly, from the legal traditions of the nation and its history, it is evident that the due process clause does not consider the right to assistance in committing suicide as a fundamental liberty interest. First of all, a patient who is suffering from such a terminal illness with extreme pain has no legal barriers to getting such medications which will even cause unconsciousness and hasten death if the main purpose is to help reduce pain. In such a situation, it is unnecessary to answer the question whether a mentally competent person with great suffering and pain has a constitutionally cognizable interest to control his or her own death. Secondly, the liberty as protected under the due process clause does not include