Legal truth and moral realism

This January, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in appeals from two controversial "right to die" cases; decisions in the cases are expected by the end of the term.1 The Ninth Circuit case held that Washington's ban on assisted suicide, including physician-assisted suicide, violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by impermissibly limiting the liberty rights of terminally ill patients to choose the manner of their dying.2