ATLANTA – The case against an alleged assisted suicide ring known as the Final Exit Network has revived a long-simmering debate over the right to die.

The network's president, its medical director and two other members are due in court Friday on charges they aided the suicide of a 58-year-old Georgia man who suffered for years from cancer of the throat and mouth.

Voters in Oregon and Washington have legalized doctor-assisted suicide, and a district judge in Montana ruled in December that such suicides are legal there, though the state Supreme Court could overturn that decision.

But most other states have laws that carry stiff penalties for those found guilty of assisting suicide. People convicted of assisting in suicide in Georgia can be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Advocates of assisted suicide pounced on the arrests, saying they're a signal that there should be renewed dialogue over end-of-life choices