New Jersey's Assembly Passes Assisted Suicide

Rav Moshe Soloveitchik on Massachusetts's assisted suicide bill

 אֵיכָה הָיְתָה לְזוֹנָה קִרְיָה נֶאֱמָנָה מְלֵאֲתִי מִשְׁפָּט צֶדֶק יָלִין בָּהּ וְעַתָּה מְרַצְּחִים

How has she become a harlot, a faithful city; full of justice, in which righteousness would lodge, but now murderers. (Yishaya 1-21)

TRENTON  — New Jersey's Assembly has passed a bill to allow physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients.

The bill establishes a procedure for patients to request to end their lives. A second doctor would have to certify the original terminal diagnosis and confirm the patient is capable of making the decision to die without pressure from others.

Assisted suicide opponents have fought the measure.

A companion bill remains stalled in the state Senate. In the Assembly, it passed 41-31 on Thursday.

The vote comes weeks after physician-assisted suicide advocate Brittany Maynard ended her life under an Oregon law allowing terminally ill people to choose when to die.

(AP)

will post more information about this vote as we get it