Montana is going to be the third state in the United States to allow for physician-assisted suicide, say news reports. Currently, both Oregon and Washington state allow for physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients.
A year ago, news was made when a state District Court judge ruled that the terminally ill people in Montana were protected by the state’s constitutional rights and should be allowed to get the medications they needed to die on their own terms.
This ruling wasn’t argued against, but in order to have it clarified and at the highest levels, advocates for physician-assisted suicide brought the case before the state Supreme Court. On Thursday, December 31, 2009, although the Supreme Court did not comment on the state constitution guaranteeing the right to die by physician-assisted suicide, the Court did say,
“we find nothing in Montana Supreme Court precedent or Montana statutes indicating that physician aid in dying is against public policy.”
It is a given that this issue has not been closed, as opponents to physician-assisted suicide pledge to fight on to the Legislature.
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Post from: Blisstree