We all have the right to physician-assisted suicide Doctor-assisted suicide presents one of the greatest dilemmas for the medical profession. Should someone who is mentally competent, but deemed terminally ill, be given the option of physician-assisted suicide? According to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, “you have liberty to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The Fourteenth Amendment states, “The State shall not deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The group believes that a terminally ill patient has the constitutional right to decide whether or not to end his or her life with the help of a licensed physician. There have been many cases over the years where a terminally ill, mentally competent patient has chosen to participate in physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia. Doctor-assisted suicide occurs when the doctor provides the patient with the means and/or knowledge to commit suicide" (Death and Dying,91). “Euthanasia is when the doctor administers the drug or agent that causes death” (Death and Dying, 92). The most recent case is The Stateof Florida v. Charles Hall. “Charles Hall is dying of AIDS and has challenged the State of Florida to let him die by self-administered lethal injection without fear of prosecution” (http://www.rights.org/deathnet/open.html). On January 31, 1997, a judge ruled that Charles Hall could take his own life with the help of a doctor. Senior Judge S. Joseph Davis, brought from Seminole County, "found that Florida's strict privacy law and the equal protection clause in the U.S. Constitution authorize Hall, 35, and Dr. McIver to carry out a death assisted without fear of being prosecuted" (Sentinella del Sole,1A). On February 11, 1997, Charles Hall's sentence was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court: he no longer had the right to end his own life. You will have to wait until May 9, 1997 to hear new arguments. Hall, believed to be mentally competent, contracted the virus in 1981 through a blood transfusion. “Some of the complications he is experiencing from the AIDS virus are arthritis, hepatitis, pneumonia and a brain cyst” (http://www.rights.org/deathnet/open.html). The Oregon Death with Dignity Act allows mentally competent terminally ill adults to seek a prescription drug "for the purpose of ending their life in a humane and dignified manner" (http://www.rights.org/deathnet/open. html). This act, "Measure 16", was approved by voters in 1994.