Cite as: 521 U. S. 702 (1997)
Souter, J., concurring in judgment
life in various circumstances or in the perceived legitimacy of taking one's own. See, e. g., Kamisar, Physician-Assisted Suicide: The Last Bridge to Active Voluntary Euthanasia, in Euthanasia Examined 225, 229 (J. Keown ed. 1995); CeloCruz, Aid-in-Dying: Should We Decriminalize Physician-Assisted Suicide and Physician-Committed Euthanasia?, 18 Am. J. L. & Med. 369, 375 (1992); Marzen, O'Dowd, Crone, & Balch, 24 Duquesne L. Rev., at 98-99. Thus it may indeed make sense for the State to take its hands off suicide as such, while continuing to prohibit the sort of assistance that would make its commission easier. See, e. g., American Law Institute, Model Penal Code § 210.5, Comment 5 (1980). Decriminalization does not, then, imply the existence of a constitutional liberty interest in suicide as such; it simply opens the door to the assertion of a cognizable liberty interest in bodily integrity and associated medical care that would otherwise have been inapposite so long as suicide, as well as assisting a suicide, was a criminal offense.
This liberty interest in bodily integrity was phrased in a general way by then-Judge Cardozo when he said, "[e]very human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body" in relation to his medical needs. Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital, 211 N. Y. 125, 129, 105 N. E. 92, 93 (1914). The familiar examples of this right derive from the common law of battery and include the right to be free from medical invasions into the body, Cruzan v. Director, Mo. Dept. of Health, 497 U. S., at 269-279, as well as a right generally to resist enforced medication, see Washington v. Harper, 494 U. S. 210, 221-222, 229 (1990). Thus "[i]t is settled now . . . that the Constitution places limits on a State's right to interfere with a person's most basic decisions about . . . bodily integrity." Casey, 505 U. S., at 849 (citations omitted); see also Cruzan, 497 U. S., at 278; id., at 288 (O’Connor, J., concurring); Washington v. Harper, supra, at 221-222; Winston v. Lee, 470 U. S. 753, 761-762 (1985); Rochin v. California, 342
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