Terminally Ill Have Right To Assisted Suicide In NJ – But Only If They Live There, Court Says

Many terminally ill patients face a grim reality: an imminent, painful death. Some may want to escape that suffering by enlisting a doctor’s help to end their own lives. And New Jersey can let people make that choice – but only if they live there, a federal appeals court ruled last week.

More than six years ago, New Jersey legalized doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients under its Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act (MAID).

Under the law, patients with a prognosis of six months or fewer to live can ask doctors to prescribe pills so they can end their own lives. In addition to other requirements, patients must be New Jersey residents.

Recently, a Delaware resident with stage 4 lymphoma challenged New Jersey’s residency requirement. Backed by a sympathetic Garden State doctor, she launched a lawsuit, picking up support from another patient – a Pennsylvania resident – who suffered from metastatic breast cancer.

Both of them died without getting a chance to receive doctor-assisted suicide.

The district court dismissed their complaint, reasoning that doctor-assisted suicide is not a fundamental privilege that states must give to nonresidents, that there was no “economic protectionism,” and that New Jersey’s law survived rational-basis review.

An appeal was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which reached a precedential decision on Dec. 5.

“In our federal system, states are free to experiment with policies as grave as letting doctors assist suicide,” the appeals court wrote in their opinion.

“Other states are free to keep it a crime,” the court added.

“This novel option does not appear to be a fundamental privilege, let alone a fundamental right, that states must accord visitors,” the court stated. “But even if we reframe it as one, New Jersey has good reasons to limit it to New Jerseyans: protecting doctors from prosecution, preventing friction with other states, guarding patients from coercion, and ensuring that their decisions are rational and considered.”

Learn about the Medical Aid in Dying Act here. More information can also be found on the New Jersey Death with Dignity website.

DEATH WITH DIGNITY IN NEW JERSEY: THE NUMBERS

Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2024, a total of 128 New Jersey residents filed MAID requests with the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner.

According to statistics from the state:

• 54 percent were male, 46 percent were female
• 91 percent were white, 5 percent Hispanic and 4 percent Asian
• 54 percent were married, 20 percent were widowed, 9 percent were single, and 15 percent were divorced
• The ages of the cases ranged from 19 to 44 (2%), 45 to 54 (2%), 55 to 64 (21%) , 65 to 74 (24%), 75 to 84 (39%), and over 85 (12%)

According to the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner, the overwhelming majority of the cases cited “malignancy” as the underlying illness (69 percent). Other illnesses included “Neuro-degenerative disease” (19 percent), Cardiovascular disease (7 percent), Pulmonary disease (3 percent), and “intestinal” (1 percent).

The most common medications prescribed under the law – taking place in 115 of the cases last year – was a combination of Morphine, Diazepam, Phenobarbital, Amitriptyline, Digoxin, Zofran, and Reglan.

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