Attorney General must appeal Assisted Suicide court ruling in New Mexico.

By Alex Schadenberg

Link to the online petition: Protect New Mexico Citizens from Assisted Suicide.


Gary King

Judge Nan Nash, of the Second Judicial District in New Mexico made the wrong decision in the case Morris v New Mexico. Nash decided to legislate from the bench by allowing New Mexico doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to assist the suicide deaths of their patients.

People need to contact New Mexico Attorney General, Gary King, to appeal the Nash decision to protect New Mexico citizens from assisted suicide.

Contact Phil Sisneros on behalf of Attorney General Gary King 
by phone at: 505-827-6000, by fax at: 505-827-5826 or email at: psisneros@nmag.gov

The Albuquerque Journal reported that Nash decided:

Drs. Katherine Morris and Aroop Mangalik, both oncologists at the University of New Mexico Hospital, could not be prosecuted under the state’s Assisted Suicide Statute, which is defined as the act of “deliberately aiding another in the taking of his own life.”

Drs Morris and Mangalik both previously practised medicine in Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal. The article continued by stating:

Nash found that the right exists under the New Mexico Constitution, which prohibits the state from depriving a person of life, liberty or property without due process.

Morris v. New Mexico, which was heard December 12 - 13, 2013, should have been dismissed.  

The case claimed that "aid in dying", which is also known as assisted suicide, is not prohibited by the New Mexico assisted suicide law because "aid in dying" is not assisted suicide.

The case argued, that if "aid in dying" is assisted suicide, then the New Mexico assisted suicide law is unconstitutional because it undermines the right to privacy and autonomy.

"Aid in dying" is assisted suicide and assisted suicide does not constitute medical treatment. Therefore prohibiting assisted suicide does not undermine the right to privacy or autonomy.

The Judge did not take into account that assisted suicide is different than suicide because assisted suicide requires the direct involvement of another person. It is not possible to protect vulnerable citizens from assisted suicide abuse, especially when elder abuse is involved.

Links to more information:
Court imposes assisted suicide in New Mexico.
Assisted suicide is being debated throughout the US.
New Hampshire, Canada and now Connecticut.