Helena, Mont., May 5, 2009 / 00:47 am
The Montana Supreme Court is considering whether to overturn a state judge’s ruling that Montana residents have a legal right to assisted suicide.
On Thursday attorneys for the Chicago-based law firm Americans United for Life (AUL) filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of a bipartisan group of 28 Montana senators and representatives. The brief argued that there is no right to assisted suicide under the state’s constitution.
“If this ruling is allowed to stand, Montana would have the most liberal allowance of assisted suicide in the nation,” said Mailee Smith, staff counsel for the AUL.
In December Helena district Judge Dorothy McCarter ruled that a Billings, Montana man with terminal cancer had the right to commit suicide and the right to assistance in committing suicide. The judge cited the state constitution’s explicit right to privacy and right to dignity.
"The Montana constitutional rights of individual privacy and human dignity, taken together, encompass the right of a competent terminally (ill) patient to die with dignity," McCarter held.