The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in October 1996 that assisted suicide is not a crime. In Virginia , there is no real clear case law on assisted suicide, nor is there a statute criminalizing the act, although there is a statute that imposes civil sanctions on persons assisting in a suicide. The terms statutes and common law are used in various legislative and judicial enactments. The other method is statutes adopted by a legislature. The two methods are closely interrelated.
Courts routinely apply statutes to particular situations.
These rulings are then used to define terms and applications of the statutes in subsequent cases. These court rulings are then noted in revisions of the statute books. They are instead published in separate volumes called law reports. When there are no statutes, the courts apply their previous rulings. It is fundamental to our conception of the relationship of the individual to society, that we have a right to privacy and self determination.