Cite as: 521 U. S. 702 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
how to confront an imminent death"), we were, in fact, more precise: We assumed that the Constitution granted competent persons a "constitutionally protected right to refuse life-saving hydration and nutrition." Cruzan, 497 U. S., at 279; id., at 287 (O’Connor, J., concurring) ("[A] liberty interest in refusing unwanted medical treatment may be inferred from our prior decisions"). The Washington statute at issue in this case prohibits "aid[ing] another person to attempt suicide," Wash. Rev. Code § 9A.36.060(1) (1994), and, thus, the question before us is whether the "liberty" specially protected by the Due Process Clause includes a right to commit suicide which itself includes a right to assistance in doing so.18
We now inquire whether this asserted right has any place in our Nation's traditions. Here, as discussed supra, at 710- 719, we are confronted with a consistent and almost universal tradition that has long rejected the asserted right, and continues explicitly to reject it today, even for terminally ill, mentally competent adults. To hold for respondents, we would have to reverse centuries of legal doctrine and practice, and strike down the considered policy choice of almost every State. See Jackman v. Rosenbaum Co., 260 U. S. 22, 31 (1922) ("If a thing has been practised for two hundred years by common consent, it will need a strong case for the Fourteenth Amendment to affect it"); Flores, 507 U. S., at 303 ("The mere novelty of such a claim is reason enough to doubt that 'substantive due process' sustains it").
Respondents contend, however, that the liberty interest they assert is consistent with this Court's substantive-due-18 See, e. g., Quill v. Vacco, 80 F. 3d 716, 724 (CA2 1996) ("right to assisted suicide finds no cognizable basis in the Constitution's language or design"); Compassion in Dying v. Washington, 49 F. 3d 586, 591 (CA9 1995) (referring to alleged "right to suicide," "right to assistance in suicide," and "right to aid in killing oneself"); People v. Kevorkian, 447 Mich. 436, 476, n. 47, 527 N. W. 2d 714, 730, n. 47 (1994) ("[T]he question that we must decide is whether the [C]onstitution encompasses a right to commit suicide and, if so, whether it includes a right to assistance").
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