Baxter v. Montana
Baxter v. Montana is one of the Supreme Court of the US state of Montana negotiated 2 September 2009 case terminally ill to question whether the Constitution of the State of Montana gives people a right to acquire lethal medication for the purpose of early termination of one's life.
background
In 2008, the prescribing and dispensing of lethal drugs as part of an assisted suicide, as well as the independent purchase of such drugs, were commonly prosecuted in the state of Montana . The truck driver Robert Baxter, suffering from incurable leukemia , and four doctors sued for the legalization of euthanasia , arguing that the state's constitution guarantees the right to purchase and prescribe lethal drugs for the purpose of ending one's own life in the event of an incurable illness. The state government argued that the constitution did not confer such a right and that prosecution was constitutional.
On December 5, 2008, a district court ruled that the state's constitution gave the right to assisted suicide for reasons of human dignity, and that the doctors involved would enjoy constitutional protection from prosecution . Baxter died of natural causes that same day.
Despite the plaintiff's death, the state of Montana appealed the verdict to the Montana Supreme Court to seek clarification from the highest court.
judgment
With a majority of four of the seven judges' votes, the court ruled on December 31, 2009 that doctors are protected by existing state laws and cannot be prosecuted when performing assisted suicide for the terminally ill. However, the judges did not rule on the question of whether assisted suicide was a constitutionally guaranteed right.
The judges ruled that at the time prosecuting doctors who performed euthanasia would be unlawful, they saw the decision on the legality of the assisted suicide as the responsibility of the ordinary legislation in the state. Had the judges ruled that there was a constitutional right to assisted suicide, the hurdles for removing this right would have been significantly higher, since a constitutional amendment would have been necessary.
Further development
As a result of the Supreme Court ruling, both proponents and opponents of euthanasia sought to have their position clearly anchored in Montana law. To this day, however, the laws protecting doctors from criminal prosecution are in force, which means that assisted suicide is currently legally legal in Montana and is carried out by numerous doctors with impunity. A concrete euthanasia law, which would convert the legalization into an official law, has not yet been passed. The question of whether there is a constitutional right to euthanasia also remains unanswered.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ ABC News September 2, 2009: Families of Dying Say Assisted Suicide Is Right , accessed November 21, 2017.
- ^ New York Times December 31, 2009: Montana Ruling Bolsters Doctor-Assisted Suicide , accessed November 21, 2017.
- ↑ DeathWithDignity.org Current Status: Montana , accessed on 21 November 2017th