New York's prohibition on assisted suicide does not violate the Equal Protection Clause. Decided June 26, 1997 (argued January 8, 1997). Opinion of the Court: William Rehnquist → go there Applied: the Fourteenth Amendment → go there Topic: End of life. Vacco v. Quill, 521 U.S. 793 (1997), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States regarding the right to die. It ruled 9–0 that a ban in the State of New York ban on physician-assisted suicide was constitutional and that preventing doctors from assisting their patients, even those terminally ill and/or in great pain, was a legitimate state interest that was well within the authority of the state to regulate. In brief, this decision established that, as a matter of law, there was no constitutional guarantee of a "right to die." Wiki link