IS THERE A RIGHT TO DIE?

Even this, apparently, is too much for the Clinton Administration. Last November, Solicitor General Walter Dellinger filed two briefs supporting the state bans. Besides the fact that the President spoke out against assisted suicide during his 1992 campaign, the Justice Department may be worried that Reinhardt's linking of the right to die to abortion rights gave the high court a new opportunity to undermine Roe.

Indeed, most court watchers find it hard to believe that the current crop of Justices has called up the two cases in order to sustain Reinhardt. University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunsteen predicts that the Justices will reverse the appellate courts and leave the question up to the states, at least for now. A.E. Dick Howard, a constitutional expert at the University of Virginia, noting the court's recent fragmentation on issues of privacy and autonomy, predicts a "murky, inarticulate decision likely to be very imprecise about the bounds of one's right to end one's life."

But expressing a sentiment held by many regarding this case, he adds, "That might not be too bad. When issues like this are still taking shape, the political and ethical and religious aspects are so elusive, perhaps the law ought to be slow in providing the final answer."

--Reported by Elaine Lafferty/Los Angeles, Viveca Novak/Washington and Richard N. Ostling/New York