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The state’s highest court on Tuesday upheld New Jersey’s physician-assisted suicide law, allowing the measure to go forward and doctors to prescribe life-ending medication to certain terminally ill patients.
The decision came hours after an appeals court overturned the lower court’s Aug. 14 ruling by Mercer County Judge Paul Innes blocking the law, arguing Innes’ court “abused its discretion” in issuing the freeze.
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| Attorney E. David Smith speaks on Aug. 19, 2019. – DANIEL J. MUNOZ |
Bergen County-based Dr. Yoseff Glassman, along with attorney E. David Smith of Smith & Associates, filed suit to have the law declared invalidated.
The “Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act” was signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in April and took effect on Aug. 1. It allows terminally ill patients with no more than six months to live to acquire life-ending medication. Patients have to demonstrate that they are mentally sound and are not being coerced into making the decision.
A patient has to wait 15 days between when they request the medication and when a doctor can write a prescription. Innes’ ruling came just at the end of that first two-week waiting period.
A practicing Jew, Glassman argued the law violates his beliefs because even if he did not participate in end-of-life treatments, he would still be forced to take part by handing over medical records to a doctor who would actually issue the prescription.
Pharmacist Manish Pujara, a practicing Hindu, filed onto the suit on Monday, arguing that it also violated his religious beliefs because like Glassman, he would be forced to take part in the assisted-suicide law by turning over medical records to participating doctors and pharmacists.
“We respectfully disagree” with the appellate court’s ruling, Smith & Associates Senior Counsel Richard Grohman told NJBIZ before the Supreme Court decision.
The firm could not be reached for additional comment.
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