NJ Assisted Suicide Law under Challenge

For over a decade, certain members of the New Jersey Legislature tried to pass a physician-assisted suicide bill falsely labeled, "Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act." The sponsors of the bill, all Democrats, never seemed to do better than to barely get it out of committee. Then came 2019 when a new Democratic governor promised to sign it should it come across his desk. The coercion, the bribing, the browbeating, and the intensive lobbying was launched in full force on the members of the general assembly in both parties.

Then on March 25, 2019, still uncertain as to whether they had the votes to pass the bill on the floor in either chamber, they made their final push. Assemblyman John Burzichelli was able to get his prized suicide bill passed in the lower house by one vote. Eager to tell his friend and prime sponsor in the Senate, Senate President Steve Sweeney, he went to the Senate President in the chamber and gave him the good news. A few minutes later, the Senate version of the bill was brought to the floor of the Senate for a vote. The New Jersey Senate, with the help of two Republicans, passed the suicide bill by one vote.

On April 12, 2019, Governor Phil Murphy, as promised, signed the "Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act" into law.

The Center for Garden State Families worked with New Jersey Right to Life and Choice is an Illusion in opposition to the physician-assisted suicide bill by demonstrating the extreme dangers and lack of safety controls that the legislation did not address.

The Center for Garden State Families is pro-life from conception to natural death. We are delighted to see that attorney Margaret Dore Esq. has filed an amicus brief to the constitutional challenge regarding the act passed in 2019. We congratulate her and the plaintiff/appellants on the action. They are Mr. Anthony Petro, a patient with a terminal diagnosis. Yosef Glassman, M.D. was the original plaintiff in the action to declare the suicide law unconstitutional and Mr. Manish Pujara, R. PH., a licensed registered pharmacist in New Jersey.

Margaret Dore's press release is below with a link to the amicus brief. She states the reasons that New Jersey's assisted suicide law is unconstitutional, dangerous, and unmanageable.

The Center for Garden State Families is praying for their success.

Constitutional Challenge Brief Filed in New Jersey Euthanasia Appeal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TRENTON, NEW JERSEY, USA. Attorney Margaret Dore, President of Choice is an Illusion, which has fought against assisted suicide and euthanasia legalization throughout the United States, and internationally, has released the following statement in connection with the filing of a constitutional challenge amicus brief, which seeks to invalidate New Jersey’s Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act. The case, Petro et al v. Grewal, is pending in the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division, A-003837-19.

“‘Aid in dying’ is a euphemism for physician-assisted suicide, assisted suicide and euthanasia. The amicus brief argues that the Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act is stacked against the individual, not limited to people near death and unconstitutional due to the way it was enacted.

“The Act is based on similar acts in Oregon and Washington State. Oregon’s act went into effect in 1997. Washington’s nearly identical act went into effect in 2009.

“All three acts apply to persons with a six month or less life expectancy. Such persons may in fact have years or decades to live.

“A well known example is Jeanette Hall. In 2000, she made a settled decision to use Oregon’s act. Her doctor convinced her to be treated for cancer instead, such that she is alive today, twenty-one years later.

“The New Jersey Constitution protects against the enactment of misleading legislation, which is what occurred here. The Act’s title and findings are misleading with regard to the Act's content, which renders the Act unconstitutional.

“The New Jersey Legislature understood that it was enacting a strictly voluntary law limited to dying people. Per the Act’s title, it was not clear that the Act would legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia.

“Per the Attorney General, the Act applies ‘only to those individuals, both patients and providers, who voluntarily elect to participate in the Act’s provisions.’ As for the trial judge, he was not persuaded that the Act specifically provides for assisted suicide and euthanasia. But the Act is not required to be voluntary. The Act is about assisted suicide and euthanasia.

“The Act's title also uses the phrase, ‘aid in dying,’ which means assisted suicide and euthanasia.

“The Act has no required oversight over administration of the lethal dose. No doctor, not even a witness, is required to be present at the death.

“The drugs used are water and/or alcohol soluble, such that they can be injected into a sleeping or restrained person without consent. Even if the patient struggled, who would know?

"Persons assisting a suicide or engaging in euthanasia can have an agenda. Consider Tami Sawyer, trustee for Thomas Middleton in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. Two days after his death by assisted suicide, she sold his home and deposited the proceeds into bank accounts for her own benefit.

“Consider also Graham Morant, who was convicted of counseling his wife to kill herself in Australia. His motive: to get the life insurance.

“The New Jersey Act has a formal application process to obtain the lethal dose. Once the lethal dose is issued by the pharmacy, there is no oversight. No witness, not even a doctor is required to be present at the death. If the patient objects or even struggles, who would know?

“Deaths pursuant to the Act, are reported as natural on the death certificate. With this situation, a patient’s heir, who participates in the patient’s death, is allowed to inherit.

“With passage of the Act, New Jersey residents with money, meaning the middle class and above, have been rendered sitting ducks to their heirs and other financial predators. Passage of the Act has created a perfect crime.”

For more detailed information, read Dore's brief.