Title: Authorizes Physicians to Prescribe Aid-in-Dying Drugs
Vote Smart's Synopsis:
Vote to pass a bill that authorizes a physician to prescribe aid-in-dying drugs to terminally ill patients.
Highlights:
Authorizes a terminally ill individual to make a request for aid-in-dying medication that the individual may choose to self-administer, if the individual has met the following qualifications (Sec. 4):
Is an adult resident of New Jersey;
Is capable and has been determined to be terminally ill; and
Has voluntarily expressed a wish to receive a prescription.
Defines “terminally ill” as a patient in the terminal stage of an irreversibly fatal illness, disease, or condition with a prognosis, based upon reasonable medical certainty, of a life expectancy of 6 months or less (Sec. 3).
Requires an individual to make 2 oral requests and 1 written request to an attending physician in order to receive aid-in-dying medication and establishes certain criteria for the request process, including but not limited to the following (Sec. 10):
At least 15 days must pass between the 2 oral requests;
At least 15 days must pass between the patient’s initial oral request and the writing of the prescription; and
The attending physician offers the option to rescind the request for medication after the 2nd oral request.
Requires that a valid written request for medication be witnessed by at least 2 individuals, at least 1 of whom is not (Sec. 5):
A relative of the patient by blood, marriage or adoption;
A recipient of the patient’s estate; or
An owner, operator, or employee of the health care facility where the individual is receiving medical treatment or is a resident.
Specifies that nothing in these provisions shall be construed to authorize lethal injection, active euthanasia, or mercy killing (Sec. 15).
Specifies that any action taken in accordance with these provisions shall not constitute suicide or assisted suicide (Sec. 27).