The Constitution does not create a "right to die," says Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who with the rest of the court will soon decide whether states may ban doctor-assisted suicide.

In a recent speech at Catholic University, Scalia said it is "absolutely plain that there is no right to die. There were laws against suicide" when the Constitution was drafted.The high court agreed earlier this month to decide whether doctors can be barred from prescribing life-ending drugs for terminally ill patients who no longer want to live.

Most states forbid doctor-assisted suicide, but lower courts have struck down such bans imposed by New York and Washington state.

Scalia did not mention the assisted suicide issue, according to a transcript of his Oct. 18 speech to an audience at Catholic University's school of philosophy. But he repeated his previous statements that the Constitution does not protect a right to die.

Courts should not recognize constitutional rights - such as the right to abortion - that did not exist when the document was drafted, Scalia told the Catholic University audience.

"All sorts of rights that clearly did not exist at the time of the Constitution have been held by the court and are thought by justices of the court to exist today," he said.

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Last April - before the high court agreed to decide the doctor-assisted suicide issue - Scalia warned students at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Va., against relying on law to resolve all societal problems.

Pulling a copy of the Constitution from his pocket, he said, "Take the newly emerging right to die, which may be a good idea. I can't find any right to die in here."

The Supreme Court first recognized a right to die in 1990. The justices ruled that a mentally competent, terminally ill person may refuse life-sustaining medical treatment but also said states can require clear proof of a patient's intent before allowing the withdrawal of such treatment.

In a concurring opinion in that case, Scalia wrote that he wished the court had decided to announce "that the federal courts have no business in this field; that American law has always accorded the state the power to prevent, by force if necessary, suicide."

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