In a letter sent to Gov. Phil Murphy on March 27, Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips and Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso made their case for additional protections to legislation recently passed by the Legislature allowing terminally ill patients to seek life-ending medication.
The bill allows adults with a prognosis of six months or less to live to get a prescription for life-ending medication they would take at home.
Murphy said he will sign the bill, signed March 25, but did not say when. It passed each chamber with the minimum number of votes: 21 in the Senate and 41 in the Assembly.
The bill requires a second opinion on the diagnosis. A psychiatrist or psychologist must determine that the patient has the mental capacity to make the decision.
“Allowing terminally ill and dying residents the dignity to make end-of-life decisions according to their own consciences is the right thing to do,” he said after the bill passed.
If Murphy signs the bill, New Jersey will join California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Hawaii, Montana and the District of Columbia in allowing physician-assisted suicide.
DePhillips and DiMaso, from Wyckoff and Holmdel, respectively, asked Murphy to use his veto to advocate for their recommendations, including:
• A psychological evaluation of patients to ensure they are not committing suicide “for emotional reasons, such as depression.”
• Demanding physicians oversee the administration of the terminal drugs.
• Allowing doctors and pharmacists to opt out of the requirements on the basis of moral or conscientious objections.
• Prohibiting insurers from denying health coverage or emergency treatment after the lethal drug has been prescribed or been made available.
• Having hospice facilities consult with appropriate health care professionals on behalf of their patients before being given the lethal dose.
Meanwhile, Assemblyman Robert Auth (R-Old Tappan), went further in his reaction to the bill’s passage, saying aid in dying can be seen as tantamount to murder, and “should incur a penalty of a crime of the first degree, mandatory 25 years to life.”
“Just because the patient is sick, weak, and vulnerable and may not be long for this earth, the severity of the crime resulting in an individual’s death remains infamous,” he said in a press statement March 27.
He said he had asked the staff at the Office of Legislative Services to prepare legislation that would amend the bill to that effect.
—Staff report