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Judge: Docs can prescribe meds for aid in dying (Rules self-euthanizing a fundamental right)
ABQ Journal.com ^ | 13 Jan 14 | Scott Sandlin

Posted on 01/13/2014 2:17:35 PM PST by xzins

State law provides a fundamental right to a terminally ill, competent patient to choose a physician’s aid in getting prescription medications that will allow a peaceful death, a state judge ruled Monday in a seminal case.

Second Judicial District Judge Nan Nash said Drs. Katherine Morris and Aroop Mangalik, both oncologists at the University of New Mexico Hospital, could not be prosecuted under the state’s Assisted Suicide Statute, which is defined as the act of “deliberately aiding another in the taking of his own life.”

The practice recognizes that the patient is dying from his or her underlying disease and allows the patient to have medication, usually sedatives, that may be taken at a time of the patient’s choosing to achieve a peaceful death. Patients who most often choose the option are those dying of cancer.

Nash found that the right exists under the New Mexico Constitution, which prohibits the state from depriving a person of life, liberty or property without due process.

“This court cannot envision a right more fundamental, more private or more integral to the liberty, safety and happiness of a New Mexican than the right of a competent, terminally ill patient to choose aid in dying,” Nash wrote in the opinion. “If decisions made the shadow of one’s imminent death regarding how they and their loved ones will face that death are not fundamental and at the core of these constitutional guarantees, then what decisions are?”

(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; deathpanels; euthanasia; moralabsolutes; newmexico; obamacare; prolife; zerocare
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1 posted on 01/13/2014 2:17:35 PM PST by xzins
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To: narses; Salvation; NYer; P-Marlowe
“This court cannot envision a right more fundamental, more private or more integral to the liberty, safety and happiness of a New Mexican than the right of a competent, terminally ill patient to choose aid in dying,”

Define "terminally ill"

2 posted on 01/13/2014 2:18:27 PM PST by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: xzins

Let the “slippery slope/fundamental and personal right” arguments begin!


3 posted on 01/13/2014 2:19:16 PM PST by freedumb2003 (Fight Tapinophobia in all its forms! Do not submit to arduus privilege.)
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To: freedumb2003

Pain meds...yes.

A large enough dose intentionally to kill you...no.


4 posted on 01/13/2014 2:22:47 PM PST by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: xzins

“Define “terminally ill””

Under Obamacare its when you are no longer a contributing member of society, aka not paying taxes.


5 posted on 01/13/2014 2:23:27 PM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: xzins
About four years ago my mother had major heart problems. The hospital had to put her on a respirator. The nurses spoke to the family and asked us to let her go. She hated the respirator and tried to pull it out. She asked the hospital just to let her die. Well, she lived and you never know she went through a dark period of her life.
If she had been under the care of these doctors, they may have given her the death pills.
I am afraid there will be doctors that will quickly dispense these death pills.
6 posted on 01/13/2014 2:25:47 PM PST by rawhide
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To: driftdiver

And 10 years from now “terminally ill” will be defined as: “All of us will die some day.”


7 posted on 01/13/2014 2:26:14 PM PST by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: xzins

Turning doctors into killers.


8 posted on 01/13/2014 2:27:22 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: rawhide
I am afraid there will be doctors that will quickly dispense these death pills.

I agree. For some. It will depend on your class, politics, and wealth.

9 posted on 01/13/2014 2:28:49 PM PST by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: GeronL
Turning doctors into killers.

Since we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, then we get to make end of life choices is (I think) the judge's reasoning.

That really is an open door without even the need to be terminally ill.

10 posted on 01/13/2014 2:31:43 PM PST by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: xzins
"Define "terminally ill""

Technically, we're ALL terminally ill - nobody gets out alive.

11 posted on 01/13/2014 2:33:03 PM PST by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
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To: driftdiver

...not paying taxes.”

That 47%+ of the country, isn’t it? The Weather Underground/commie/fascist/nazi/dirtbag filth will be happy:

http://voices.yahoo.com/fbi-informant-reveals-weather-underground-advocated-6194830.html


12 posted on 01/13/2014 2:37:41 PM PST by Carriage Hill (Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody stands around reloading.)
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To: xzins

No physician has ever been convicted of a crime for medicating a dying patient with morphine.

That said, direct killing should remain illegal, for all the slippery slope reasons.

Is it ever necessary? Is it ever licit?

Those who know don’t say, and those who say, don’t know.


13 posted on 01/13/2014 2:38:31 PM PST by Jim Noble (When strong, avoid them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.)
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To: xzins

“Nash found that the right exists under the New Mexico Constitution, which prohibits the state from depriving a person of life, liberty or property without due process.”

What an irrational decision. How can preventing homicide be in any way construed as depriving someone of life, liberty or property without due process?


14 posted on 01/13/2014 2:39:53 PM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (There Is Still A Very Hot War On Terror, Just Not On The MSM. Rantburg.com)
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To: xzins
FWIW, Robert Heinlein had one of his most well-loved characters asserted that suicide is a fundamental right in the first chapter of Time Enough For Love.

Of course, he (RAH) was writing about a future time in which the lifespan of humans could be extended almost infinitely; the character in question (Lazarus Long) had by that time been alive well over two hundred years, and was tired of living.

15 posted on 01/13/2014 2:41:37 PM PST by Steely Tom (If the Constitution can be a living document, I guess a corporation can be a person.)
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To: xzins

I don’t care if you kill yourself, you have zero right to get others to help kill you


16 posted on 01/13/2014 2:43:18 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: rawhide

“These doctors”—more like LAWYERS. This is not being pushed by doctors.


17 posted on 01/13/2014 2:49:33 PM PST by Mamzelle
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To: xzins

And so we go from permitting it to requiring it.


18 posted on 01/13/2014 2:50:45 PM PST by Mercat
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To: xzins
"Pain meds...yes. A large enough dose intentionally to kill you...no."

So how does this work. If a patient takes two or three days worth of pain meds they will die. Following you line of thought a doctor could only give a patient a day or day and a half worth of pain meds at a time? Ya, right. You are going to make a terminally ill patient run back and forth to the pharmacy every day? Or are you counting on them to always have others there to do it for them? If they can't find others to do this then they do without their pain meds and die in agony. How about if they hoard half of their meds for 4 days? How are you going to stop that?

Sure, this works perfectly.

How about if the do-gooders get their nose out of others lives and let them make their own decisions. If they have to deal with God so be it but in the mean it is not your place to play god and make that decision.

I've always laughed about the laws against suicide. What are you really going to do with those laws? Are you going to arrest someone who successfully commits suicide?

19 posted on 01/13/2014 2:51:47 PM PST by oldenuff2no ( .)
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To: xzins

Good for him, my father did it the hard way by refusing to eat ot drink anything until he died after 2 weeks.

His knees had gone bad and he wanted out and who in the family has any right to stop him, he was 92.


20 posted on 01/13/2014 2:51:47 PM PST by dalereed
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