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MT High Court to Decide on Constitutional Right to End of Life Decisions

By Jeralyn

Washington and Oregon have assisted suicide laws that were passed by voters' referendums.

Montana is different. It rewrote its Constitution in 1972, and here are some of the rights it spelled out:

• All persons are born free and have certain inalienable rights. They include the right to a clean and healthful environment and the rights of pursuing life’s basic necessities, enjoying and defending their lives and liberties, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and seeking their safety, health and happiness in all lawful ways.

[More...]

• The dignity of the human being is inviolable. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws. Neither the state nor any person, firm, corporation, or institution shall discriminate against any person in the exercise of his civil or political rights on account of race, color, sex, culture, social origin or condition, or political or religious ideas.

• The right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest.

• The right of any person to keep or bear arms in defense of his own home, person, and property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall not be called in question.

• No person shall be deprived of the right to examine documents or to observe the deliberations of all public bodies or agencies of state government and its subdivisions, except in cases in which the demand of individual privacy clearly exceeds the merits of public disclosure.

Wednesday, the Montana Supreme Court will decide whether Montanans have the right to make their own end of life choices...and in particular, whether they may choose death.

The state’s highest court on Wednesday will take up Mr. Baxter’s claim that a doctor’s refusal to help him die violated his rights under Montana’s Constitution — and lawyers on both sides say the chances are good that he will prevail.

The question is, Is there a constitutional right to die?

Lawyers on both sides say the Montana Supreme Court has a tradition of interpreting the State Constitution with that sentiment in mind, with privacy rights and personal liberty often outweighing other concerns. The court ruled in 1997, for example, that Montana’s anti-sodomy laws were unconstitutional invasions of privacy.

The stakes are high because since the case inovolves only the State Constitution, no appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is allowed.

According to the Plaintiffs,

At a time when the limits, if not failings, of medicine are part of the national debate about health care reform, Ms. Tucker said, what is the power of the individual to set his or her own course?

“This case is part of a journey,” said Ms. Tucker, who is director of legal affairs for Compassion and Choices, a national group that advocates to protect and expand the rights of the terminally ill and is also one of the plaintiffs. “It’s about empowering patients and giving them the right to decide when they have suffered enough.”

I hope they decide to uphold the right of every adult to make their own end of life decisions. Some will make wise decisions, others may make poor decisions. But it's their bodies and their lives, not the Government's. They should be free to choose.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 01, 2009 (boomark / email).