Throughout the twentieth century, major scientific and medical advances have greatly enhanced the life expectancy of the average person. However, there are many instances where doctors can preserve life artificially. In these cases where the patient suffers from a terminal disease or remains in a "persistent vegetative state" or PVS from which they cannot voice their wishes for continuation or termination of life, the question becomes whether or not the patient has the freedom to choose whether or not to prolong their life even though it may consist of pain and suffering. In answer to this question, proponents of physician-assisted suicide, most notably, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, are of the opinion that not only should patients be able to abstain from treatment, but if they have a terminal and/or extremely painful condition, they should be able to seek out the assistance of a doctor in order to expedite their death with as little pain as possible.

Contained herein are the arguments for and against the legalization of doctor-assisted suicide, as well as where the state courts stand in respect to this most delicate of issues.

The "passive" form of euthanasia was first deemed legal by the New Jersey State Supreme Court in 1976 In re Quinlan . In the Quinlan case, the court allowed a competent patient to terminate the use of life-sustaining medical machines to prolong life. Since New Jersey's decision, all fifty states have enacted similar statutes which contain living will provisions. However, although the United States Supreme Court upheld the Quinlan decision in re Cruzan , it changed the parameters of passive euthanasia . With the Cruzan decision, the Supreme Court held that passive euthanasia was legal but only for competent adults or those who are incompetent but have previously procured a living will. However, if the patient is without a living will and incompetent, it becomes the burden of the family to prove that there is "clear and convincing evidence" to the affect that the patient does not want to continue living in a vegetative state.

Persons who are for active euthanasia believe that legislation against it is "violative of the fundamental concepts of liberty, freedom of choice, and self-determination" They base these beliefs on the text of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. The voluntary choice between life and death is, to them, a basic human right which the government has no right to legislate. They often compare this choice of euthanasia to the right to abortion. Judge Lynn Compton embodies these views in her opinion in the case of Bouvia v. Superior Court , "If there is a time when we ought to be able to get the government 'off our backs', it is when we face death-either by choice or otherwise" .

tion, we must first distinguish between active and passive euthanasia. Passive euthanasia involves the patient's refusal of medical assistance. It involves the right to die which is protected by the United States Constitution clauses of due process liberty and the right to privacy (Fourteenth Amendment). The right to doctor-assisted suicide, or active euthanasia, consists of, "...a patient's right to authorize a physician to perform an act that intentionally results in the patient's death, without the physician's being held civilly or criminally liable for having caused the death" .

Presently, there are twenty-one states which allow citizen legislation through the use of the general election ballot. In these states, s

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