One thing is clear about Neil Gorsuch, President Trump's nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court: his views on assisted suicide. Gorsuch strongly opposes assisted suicide, as outlined in a book he wrote on the subject in 2006, The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia (Princeton University Press).
According to coverage of the book inThe Washington Post andThe Atlantic, the 49-year-old Tenth Circuit jurist from Colorado explains in a measured and even-handed way his thoughts about assisted suicide. After reviewing the history of assisted suicide and examining case studies where the practice is legal, Gorsuch lays out his philosophy surrounding end-of-life decisions. In opposing legalizing assisted suicide, he uses the moral argument that all life is valuable and it is always wrong to intentionally take a life (although he sidesteps discussing war and capital punishment, arguing that they "raise unique questions all their own"). He also worries about the potential for the abuse of assisted suicide laws.
Currently five states (California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington) have death with dignity laws that allow mentally competent, terminally ill adults with six or fewer months to live to voluntarily request a prescription medication to hasten their death. (The District of Columbia recently passed a death with dignity law that Congress may block before it takes effect.) More states have introduced bills to allow assisted suicide. It is likely that challenges to these laws may end up before the Supreme Court.
For more information about the book, click here.
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