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Anti-suicide law bars doctor-aided death, Connecticut court rules
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted June 21, 2010
A Connecticut judge in June ruled that the state law criminalizing assisted suicide also bars physicians from prescribing life-ending medication to terminally ill patients who request them.
Connecticut internists Gary Blick, MD, and Ronald M. Levine, MD, sued the state's attorney general last fall, arguing that Connecticut's criminal statute on assisted suicide should not apply to doctor-aided deaths.
Though the state statute does not explicitly bar physicians from aiding in deaths, Connecticut Superior Court Judge Julia Aurigemma wrote in her opinion dismissing the case that the law "is aimed at precisely the situation presented by the plaintiffs -- aiding a terminally ill patient, in unbearable pain, to end his or her own life -- and precisely the situation in which physicians are most likely to participate."
The physicians and their counsel, from the Portland, Ore.-based Compassion & Choices, which favors legal access to physician-assisted suicide, are considering whether to appeal the ruling.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/06/21/prbf0621.htm.