Allan Bouquin · @disciple78
20th Aug 2019 from TweetCaster
Judge Halts NJ's Aid in Dying Law
www.nchla.org
Human Life Action is proud to stand with New Jersey Right to Life to Stop Assisted Suicide.
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Dear Pro-Life Friend,
Please read the article below. A Judge has granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the NJ Assisted Suicide law from going into effect.
As you may recall, the law did not have widespread support among the legislature. It only passed by a one vote margin in both houses of the legislature. We also must not forget that the legislative process was corrupted when Senator Sweeney abused his power by swapping out two members of the Senate Health Committee who previously voted against releasing the bill from committee with himself and a Senate sponsor of the bill to ensure the legislation would get enough yes votes to release it from committee. This rendered the bill’s passage in the Senate on the bill completely illegitimate. We applaud the plaintiff, Dr. Glassman, for bringing this challenge and are hopeful that the lawsuit may lead to an invalidation of this terribly misguided law.
For Life,
Marie Tasy
Executive Director Judge Halts N.J.’s Aid in Dying law
Gov. Phil Murphy signed the "Aid in Dying" law in April allowing terminally ill people to obtain a prescription to end their lives.
By Susan K. Livio | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
A state judge has granted a request to stop New Jersey’s “aid in dying” law from taking effect, preventing any physician from writing a lethal prescription for terminally ill patients to end their lives.
State Superior Court Judge Paul Innes, sitting in Mercer County, granted the temporary restraining order Wednesday at the request of a physician from Bergen County who opposes the law for religious and professional reasons, said E. David Smith of Bloomfield, the physician’s attorney.
Innes sided with the plaintiff, Yosef Glassman, who argued that although the law took effect Aug. 1, the Murphy administration had not yet written the rules governing the practice, “rendering the entire death process wholly unregulated,” according to court records.
The law took effect on August 1, but required a two-week waiting period before a physician could fill a patient’s prescription. That two-week period would have come due Friday, Smith said.
“We wanted to put a stop to it,” Smith said.
The law passed after eight years of legislative hearings, and aggressively fought by religious leaders and disability advocates who said elderly and sick people would feel compelled to end their lives so as not to burden their families.
The restraining order is in effect until at least the next court date, scheduled for Oct. 23, according to court documents.
Smith predicted that would not be enough time for the state to write and seek public comment on the regulations required to carry out the law.
Doctors are not mandated to participate, but they are required if they refuse to aid a patient’s death to refer patients to another physician. As a physician and orthodox Jew, Grossman said he could not condone any participation, even if it involved transferring a patient’s file, Smith said.
Grossman believes “the right to human life is sacred and should not be taken under any circumstances,” Smith said.
State Assemblyman John Burzichelli, D-Gloucester, the law’s prime sponsor, said he was “surprised” by the challenge. “The work we did was carefully structured with guidance from others,” he said.
A spokesman for Gov. Phil Murphy, who signed the law in April, declined to comment on the case, as did state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, who will represent the state in the legal proceedings.
At an unrelated event in Edison, Murphy told reporters Thursday afternoon his administration would “vigorously fight” the restraining order.
“This was a really hard one for me, particularly given growing up as a Catholic,” the governor added. “This was not an easy one to get to. But I got convinced that it shouldn’t be the law that dictates how things end. That it should be you and your loved ones.”
Marie Tasy, executive director for New Jersey Right to Life, issued a statement thanking the doctor for “challenging this terribly misguided law which is both incompatible with a physician’s role as healer and clearly a danger to our most vulnerable citizens.”
Tasy noted the legislation would never have passed the Senate health committee had Democratic leaders not substituted members that day who opposed the bill.
NJ Advance Media staff writers Brent Johnson and S.P. Sullivancontributed to this report.
This is a breaking story. More information will be reported later in the day.
The state Health Department has created this webpage explaining the law.
Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter@SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
For Life,
Marie Tasy, Executive Director
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