Assisted Suicide Goes to Top Court: Justices Will Decide If Practice Is a Right

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The U.S. Supreme Court agreed yesterday to resolve the visceral "right to die" issue of whether doctors may help desperate patients kill themselves.

Urged by medical and church groups to take on a moral issue many equate with the Roe vs. Wade abortion decision, justices accepted separate appeals by the states of New York and Washington from federal rulings allowing doctors to help competent patients with cancer, emphysema or AIDS die.

Some critics call assisted suicide "the Dutch cure" because the Netherlands condones euthanasia.

Rep. Charles T. Canady, Florida Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, criticized the practice in a report charging that 27 percent of 3,700 Dutch euthanasia cases in one year …