The Pressure Is on to Expand Assisted Suicide in New Jersey

When assisted suicide activists sell legalization, it is always described as an itsy-bitsy change in medical ethics with “strict guidelines” to protect against abuse. But it turns out the guidelines are not really “strict,” nor are they intended to remain permanently in effect.

Here’s the pattern: Almost as soon as assisted suicide becomes legal, regulatory protections are redefined as “obstacles” or “barriers” to a good death. And the pressure is soon on to expand the law — which has happened in almost every state in which assisted suicide has been legalized.

Now, it’s New Jersey’s turn. From the New Jersey Monitor story:

Since New Jersey lawmakers passed an aid-in-dying law five years ago, the number of terminally ill patients who have sought to end their lives by self-administered medication has jumped almost tenfold.

Now, advocates are working on two fronts to push state policymakers to “course-correct” the law and make it more accessible to people nearing death with unbearable pain and suffering.

They want to abolish a provision in the law that restricts it to New Jersey residents. Two terminally ill patients from Delaware and Pennsylvania and two New Jersey doctors sued the state last summer, calling the residency restriction discriminatory and unconstitutional.

They also want state legislators to move on a stalled bill that would allow doctors to waive the mandatory 15-day waiting period after patients’ initial requests for life-ending medication. The wait was meant as a safeguard but instead has become a barrier, supporters say.

Trashing the residency requirement is part of a new advocacy thrust to nationalize assisted suicide:

The advocacy comes as bodily autonomy in health care decisions has become a flashpoint nationally, with conservative states increasingly restricting abortion rights and access to gender-affirming care.

“I definitely worry,” Pasik said. “This is a sanctuary state for abortion care and for gender-affirming care. Why can’t it be sanctuary state for medical aid-in-dying too?”

What New Jersey state interest is served by someone from Pennsylvania going to the state to commit suicide is beyond me.

I don’t understand how the pretense of strictly controlling suicide facilitation continues to work as an advocacy tactic. But, with Delaware’s legislature having just passed a legalization bill — awaiting signing or veto by the governor — it still does.

Maybe people prefer pretense to candor, and gooey assurances to honest debates. Or they aren’t paying attention or simply don’t care. But this is how the slippery slope keeps slip-sliding away.