The decision means that “as of today” Montanans have the right to physician-assisted suicide, said Stephen Hopcraft, a spokesman for Compassion & Choices, a national end-of-life choice group that worked with a now-deceased Billings man who sought to end his life with physician help while battling terminal leukemia.
Helena District Judge Dorothy McCarter ruled in December that the Montana Constitution guarantees both a right to privacy and to human dignity, which includes the right of terminally ill citizens to choose to end their lives with a doctor's help.
McCarter on Wednesday dismissed the request.
The case deals with Robert Baxter, a terminally ill Billings man, who sought to end his life. Baxter died the same day McCarter ruled in his favor, before learning the outcome of the case.
McGrath has since been sworn in as chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court. He has pledged to recuse himself from the case.
The issue could be a lightning rod at the 2009 Legislature, which convened here this week. Rep. Dick Barrett, D-Missoula, is proposing a would-be law to enshrine McCarter's decision and to better define how physician-assisted suicide would work.
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DAN wrote on Jan 8, 2009 8:32 PM:
" I THINK THIS SHOULD BE ALLOWED IN ALL STATES SO PEOPLE WITH LIFE ILLNESSES THAT CAUSE YOU TO BE IN A HOSPITAL FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE AND ARE IN PAIN. HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF YOU GOT A TERMINAL ILLNESS AND HAD TO LIVE WITH AGONY AND EXCRUCIATING PAIN WHEN YOU CANNOT LEAVE A HOSPITAL EVER AGAIN? "
Don wrote on Jan 8, 2009 4:35 AM: