A New Jersey law A federal appeals court has ruled that a law allowing terminally ill people to seek life-ending drugs only applies to residents of the state and not to those outside its borders.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia, rejected defenses challenging New Jersey’s residency requirement while acknowledging how serious it is. End of life decisions It could be. The Court noted that not all States had adopted the same approach.
“Death brings good things to an end, but rarely does them,” U.S. Circuit Judge Stefanos Bibas wrote in the opinion issued Friday. “Many terminally ill patients face a grim reality: imminent and painful death. Some may wish to avoid that suffering by seeking a doctor’s help to end their lives. New Jersey allows its residents to make that choice – but only for its residents.”
In addition to New Jersey, the District of Columbia and 10 other states allow medically assisted suicide in terminal cases. The majority of states limit the choice to their residents. Oregon and Vermont allow this for everyone.
The case was brought by a Delaware woman with stage IV lymphoma who wanted the option of physician-assisted suicide and challenged New Jersey’s residency requirement but died after oral arguments in the case. Delaware will begin allowing physician-assisted suicide on January 1.
A New Jersey doctor who sought to help patients like the Delaware woman also challenged the law. Initially, there were other plaintiffs, including a Pennsylvania woman who had metastatic breast cancer but died before appealing the lower court’s ruling denying the appeal, as well as another New Jersey doctor who had retired.
Messages seeking comment were left Wednesday with attorneys for the people challenging the law.
New Jersey’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, signed the legislation in 2019, saying that while his Catholic faith might lead him not to end his life if he were terminally ill, he would not deny that choice to others.
The law requires that two doctors sign the request and that the terminally ill patient be considered an adult resident of New Jersey who can make such a decision, voluntarily expresses a wish to die and has a prognosis of six months or less to live.
It requires patients to order the medication twice, and he says they should be given a chance to rescind their decision. At least one of the requests must be in writing and signed by two witnesses.
At least one witness may not be a relative, entitled to any part of the person’s property, the owner of the health care facility where the patient is receiving treatment or a worker there, or be the patient’s physician.
By law, patients must administer the medication themselves, and their treating physician will be required to offer other treatment options, including palliative care.
A lower court rejected the objectors’ complaint, holding that physician-assisted suicide is not a fundamental privilege that states must grant to nonresidents.
The Court of Appeal agreed.
“In our federal system, states are free to try dangerous policies like allowing doctors to assist in suicide. Other states are free to make it a crime,” the opinion said. “This new option does not appear to be a basic privilege, let alone a basic right, that states should grant visitors.”