The Daily Journal: Dying patients deserve to use NJ aid-in-dying law, state says in arguing against lawsuit

Mar 25, 2020 legal advocacy New Jersey New Jersey Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act

An excerpt from The News Journal article, “Dying patients deserve to use NJ aid-in-dying law, state says in arguing against lawsuit,” published March 24, 2020:

A doctor, pharmacist and cancer patient trying to overturn New Jersey's aid-in-dying law are motivated by personal beliefs and their legal rights have not been violated, so their case should be dismissed, a lawyer for the state argued Tuesday.

Their lawsuit should end and the judge should uphold the state's young law that allows doctors to prescribe terminally ill patients lethal medication, Deputy Attorney General Francis Baker said. This legal challenge, ongoing since August, has cast a shadow of uncertainty on patients and health care providers, Baker said.

"These qualified terminally ill patients engaging in careful and thoughtful end-of-life decision making, they deserve a final resolution in this matter," Baker said. "They deserve to know the rug isn’t going to be pulled out from under them as it was back in August."

An approximately hourlong hearing was held Tuesday via videoconference, because in-person court proceedings across the state have been limited as part of the effort to curb close-quarters contact that could spread the novel coronavirus. State Superior Court Judge Robert Lougy said he would issue a written ruling on the state's motion to dismiss, but did not say when...

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