Georgia lawmakers meant to do the right thing in 1994 when they enacted a law forbidding people to advertise offers to help someone commit suicide. The worthy goal was to block so-called “assisted suicides” — such as those performed by Dr. Jack Kevorkian — from happening in Georgia.
But while Georgia made it a felony to advertise assisted suicide, lawmakers failed to forbid the act of assisted suicide itself. And so now, the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that the rightly motivated but badly composed law violates freedom of speech.
Sadly, that ruling means members of a “right-to-die” network who were charged in 2009 with helping a cancer patient kill himself will not stand trial.
The patient in question did not have terminal cancer. In fact, Georgia authorities determined that he was making a recovery. Aiding suicide would be wrong even if a person had a terminal illness, but it is even more disturbing when the person is on the mend.
That was not, however, the only disturbing thing authorities said they found in their investigation of the assisted suicide organization, which called itself the Final Exit Network.