US court overturns assisted suicide restrictions

Four members of a group that helped a cancer-stricken man die said the law also violated free speech rights.The Georgia Supreme Courts unanimous ruling concludes the 1994 state law restricts speech in violation of the free speech clauses of the U.S. and Georgia constitutions. The ruling could help reshape the states end-of-life policy.The courts opinion held that Georgia only criminalized assisted suicides that include a public offering to assist. It said the law didnt expressly prohibit assisted suicides, meaning some were legal in Georgia.The State has failed to provide any explanation or evidence as to why a public advertisement or offer to assist in an otherwise legal activity is sufficiently problematic to justify an intrusion on protected speech rights, the ruling said.The courts decision is a victory to members of the Final Exit Network who challenged the law after they were charged in February 2009 with helping a 58-year-old cancer-stricken man die.Their attorneys said the law violates First Amendment rights because it bans people from publicly speaking about assisted suicide. Prosecutors said the law applies only to those who follow through on their talk by helping someone die.At issue is a 1994 Georgia law that makes it a felony for anyone who publicly advertises, offers or holds himself or herself out as offering that he or she will intentionally and actively assist another person in the commission of suicide and commits any overt act to further that purpose.State attorneys said the law was aimed at preventing assisted suicides from the likes of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the late physician who sparked the national right-to-die debate.Prosecutors had said the law doesnt infringe on the free speech rights of people who support assisted suicide only those who take concrete steps to carry one out. They said Georgia law doesnt even ban assisted suicide as long as its not being publicly advertised.Defense attorneys countered that lawmakers should have adopted a law specifically outlawing assisted suicide if the government was interested in preventing it. They said the law punishes only those involved in assisted suicides if they speak publicly about it but does nothing to block one from being carried out by others who stay silent.The four members of the Final Exit Network were arrested in February 2009 after John Celmers death at his Georgia home. They were arrested after an eight-month investigation by state authorities, in which an undercover agent posing as someone seeking to commit suicide infiltrated the group.The four pleaded not guilty to charges that they tampered with evidence, violated anti-racketeering laws and helped the man kill himself, and their case has been on hold while the Georgia Supreme Court considered their challenge.Mondays ruling could help determine the future of the criminal case against the four, which has been on hold.—AP