Press Releases
June 27, 1997

WASHINGTON -- Yesterday's unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision rejecting the assertion of a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide was described by a major Orthodox Jewish organization as a "victory for the principle that life should be measured by its inherent sanctity, not by its perceived quality."

Agudath Israel of America had submitted an amicus curiae brief in two states' appeals of federal courts' rulings that a fundamental right to assisted suicide exists. It was that defense of Washington and New York's laws forbidding doctors from helping patients to end their lives that was vindicated yesterday by the Court.

David Zwiebel, the organization's general counsel and director of government affairs, said he was "greatly relieved" by the Court's rejection of the proposed constitutional right, but that nothing in the ruling prohibits states from adopting their own laws legalizing assisted suicide, as indeed the state of Oregon has done.

"A major battle has been won," he asserted, "but the larger moral war is probably far from over."