More on Physician-Aided Dying

I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss these developments.

First, Colorado voters in November may see a ballot initiative on physician-aided dying.  Proponents are collecting signatures according to an article in the Denver Post, Right-to-die initiative headed for Colorado’s November ballot. It’s not a slam-dunk however. The article notes that there is opposition to the proponents efforts to place the initiative on the ballot.  Proposed legislation failed previously. Stay tuned.

Second, in case you missed it, on June 30, 2016, the New Mexico Supreme Court issued its ruling in Morris v. Brandenburg,  a physician-aided dying case that has been making its way through the appeals process.  The court held “we decline to hold that there is an absolute and fundamental constitutional right to a physician’s aid in dying and conclude that Section 30-2-4 is not  unconstitutional on its face or as applied to Petitioners in this case.” The court relied heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Washington v. Glucksberg and found no specific reasons under the NM Constitution to depart from that precedent since physician-aided dying is not a fundamental right.  Here’s an excerpt from the opinion:

New Mexico, like the rest of the nation, has historically sought to deter suicides and to punish those who assist with suicide, with limited exceptions in the HCDA and the Pain Relief Act. However, these exceptions occurred as a result of debates in the legislative and executive branches of government, and only because of carefully drafted definitions and safeguards, which incidentally are consistent with the safeguards urged by Petitioners. Numerous examples of such definitions and safeguards exist in the UHCDA. In addition to those previously identified in paragraph 35 of this opinion, the following reflect other safeguards relevant to our analysis… These and other provisions of the UHCDA further many of the government interests recognized by the Glucksberg Court as unquestionably legitimate, and which made Washington’s ban on physician aid in dying reasonably related to their promotion and protection…Indeed, if such exceptions and carve-outs to the historical national public policy of deterring suicide properly exist, they are certainly borne of the legislature and not the judiciary.

A summary of the opinion appeared in the July 13, 2016 eBulletin (full disclosure-I’m one of the editors).