HELENA – The assisted-suicide case before the Montana Supreme Court is drawing a barrage of briefs from legislators, physicians and groups, over an issue that sows controversy.
The state of Montana has asked the court to reverse a lower court ruling that Montanans have a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide.
Before a Tuesday deadline, at least 14 motions to participate in the case had been filed with the Supreme Court, which is likely to hear oral arguments later this year.
“Usually we get a couple of briefs, but this is going to be a big case,” said Birgit Stipich, an appellate case manager in the office of the Supreme Court clerk.
District Judge Dorothy McCarter ruled Dec. 5 that mentally sound, terminally ill Montanans have a right to choose to end their lives using medication prescribed by doctors — putting the state on a path to become the nation’s third allowing assisted suicide.
The ruling came in the case of Robert Baxter, a Billings man with terminal cancer, who was joined in the lawsuit by four physicians and a nonprofit patients’ rights group.
“Montana has a strong constitution that is among the most protective if not the most protective of all the 50 states in protecting individual privacy and dignity,” said Kathryn Tucker, attorney for Compassion & Choices, the patients’ rights group.
In particular, Tucker points to a section in the state constitution that proclaims human dignity is inviolable — a legal protection that she says is unique to Montana.
The state attorney’s office has said in its brief, however, that the constitution does not provide for a specific right of dignity that is separate from a right to equal protection under the law.
“The terminally ill possess the same dignity held by all Montanans,” reads the brief from Attorney General Steve Bullock. “However, even if dignity were a tractable legal rule, it should not lower the standard of care for this especially vulnerable population.”
A group of 28 state legislators also is urging the court to reject the ruling, claiming that any decision about assisted suicide should fall to the legislative branch of government.
“The District Court decision endangers our citizens — and our most vulnerable citizens at that — without so much as even contemplating the potential abuses and social harms that may result,” reads the legislators’ brief. “That is truly an analysis that should be left for the Legislature.”
On the other side, at least 24 legislators are filing with the court to support a right to suicide for the terminally ill.
“I believe the Legislature has an important role in making sure this right is both recognized and not abused in any way and that role will be to draft legislation that protects that right and ensures it’s not abused,” said Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena.
Montana would join Oregon and Washington in allowing physician-assisted suicide, but it would be the first state where a court has approved writing prescriptions for fatal drugs.
McCarter refused to issue a stay on her ruling pending appeal, and Montana doctors can legally prescribe drugs to end the lives of terminally ill patients. But patients seeking assistance to die have complained they cannot find physicians willing to help them.
After the ruling, the Montana Medical Association issued a policy stating it “does not condone the deliberate act of precipitating the death of patient.”