"it is difficult to imagine a compelling interest in preserving the life of an individual who is suffering pain and the indignity of his disease, whose life is going to end within a relatively short period of time, and for whom palliative care is inadequate to satisfy his personal desire to die with dignity."
Delstatens grundlov har klare regler omkring beskyttelse af menneskers privatliv og værdighed. Søgsmålet gik på om dette omfatter måden at dø på, altså om der var behov for at staten skal regulere individets valgmuligheder omkring det at dø. Her er det værd at bemærke at tilsvarende argumentation i 1999 blev brugt til at sikre fri abort. Montana er den eneste delstat som har grundlovssikret menneskets værdighed.“The dignity of the human being is inviolable.”
Dommen fulgte lige efter at delstaten Washington ved en folkeafstemning vedtog en lov der giver læger og patienter ret til i fællesskab at afslutte dødssyge patienters liv, netop gennem en recept på et dødbringende medikament. Lovgivning som følger den tilsvarende i nabostaten Oregon. Teknisk set er det hjælp til selvmord, men er samtidig en del af den følsomme debat omkring aktiv dødshjælp, eutanasi, autonomi og grænserne for lægers behandling af døende.
Jeg bemærker også at dommen gennem sin bekræftelse af patienters menneskerettigheder lægger sig op ad højesteret i Schweiz, der den 6. december 2006 afsagde en dom der tilsvarende fastholder retten til selvbestemmelse omkring sin død som en del af privatlivets fred. Der er, på dato, præcis to år mellem dommene.
Ironisk nok døde Robert Baxter samme dag, uden at høre om hans sejr i retten. Det førte til at han i en på forhånd skrevet pressemeddelelse blev citeret for at være lettet over dommen, og over respekten for hans ret til at dø med værdighed. Det år som sagen var under behandling blev hans sidste.
- The Huffington Post:
Montana: Assisted Suicide Ruled Legal - Bozeman Daily Chronicle:
Two terminally ill Montanans file right-to-die lawsuit - AP:
Montana judge: Man has right to assisted suicide - Compassion & Choices Blog: (med sagens dokumenter)
Montana Court Decides Terminally Ill Patients Have Right to Death with Dignity under Montana Constitution
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Missoulian: Judge tosses assisted suicide freeze request
A judge here on Wednesday dismissed a request to freeze her own decision upholding Montana's right to physician-assisted suicide until the state's Supreme Court rules on the matter.
The decision means that “as of today” Montanans have the right to physician-assisted suicide, said Stephen Hopcraft, a spokesman for Compassion & Choices, a national end-of-life choice group that worked with a now-deceased Billings man who sought to end his life with physician help while battling terminal leukemia.
Helena District Judge Dorothy McCarter ruled in December that the Montana Constitution guarantees both a right to privacy and to human dignity, which includes the right of terminally ill citizens to choose to end their lives with a doctor's help.
The case has been appealed to the Montana Supreme Court. Former Attorney General Mike McGrath asked McCarter several weeks ago to delay the effect of her ruling until the high court rules on the matter.
McCarter on Wednesday dismissed the request.
The case deals with Robert Baxter, a terminally ill Billings man, who sought to end his life. Baxter died the same day McCarter ruled in his favor, before learning the outcome of the case.
McGrath has since been sworn in as chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court. He has pledged to recuse himself from the case.
The issue could be a lightning rod at the 2009 Legislature, which convened here this week. Rep. Dick Barrett, D-Missoula, is proposing a would-be law to enshrine McCarter's decision and to better define how physician-assisted suicide would work.
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