ALBUQUERQUE – Competent, terminally-ill patients have a fundamental right under the New Mexico Constitution to seek a physician’s help in getting prescription medications if they want to end their lives on their own terms, a state district judge ruled Monday.
Second Judicial District Judge Nan Nash said the constitution 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,” the judge wrote.
Nash also ruled doctors could not be prosecuted under the state’s assisted-suicide law, which classifies helping with suicide as a fourth-degree felony.
The plaintiffs in the case do not consider physicians aiding in dying a form of suicide.
The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office said it is discussing the possibility of an appeal, but it needs to fully analyze the judge’s opinion before commenting further.
The lawsuit had the support of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, Denver-based Compassion & Choices and the New Mexico Psychological Association, the largest organization of professional psychologists in the state.
The psychologists’ group argued that assisted suicide and “aid in dying” for terminally ill patients were fundamentally different.
Four other states, including Oregon, allow patients to seek aid in dying if their conditions become unbearable.
