ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled Thursday that terminally ill patients cannot end their lives with help from doctors, ending what right-to-die advocates thought would be a successful legal fight.
In a 5-0 opinion, the high court overturned a previous district court decision that doctors could not be prosecuted under the state’s assisted suicide law, which classifies helping with suicide as a fourth-degree felony.
“If we were to recognize an absolute, fundamental right to physician aid in dying, constitutional questions would abound regarding legislation that defined terminal illness or provided for protective procedures to assure that a patient was making an informed and independent decision,” Justice Edward Chavez wrote for the court.
Doctors can legally help terminally ill patients ends their lives in five states – California, Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont – and advocates have spurred debate in dozens of other statehouses around the country. So far, they’ve been unsuccessful.
Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, which launched the legal challenge in the state 2012, called the ruling “tragic news” for patients fighting terminal illness.