Connecticut Doctors Challenge Assisted Suicide Statute

Two doctors in Connecticut have filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s assisted suicide statute:

The lawsuit seeks the legal answer to whether doctor-aided death constitutes assisted suicide. State law says a person is guilty of second-degree manslaughter if “he intentionally causes or aids another person, other than by force, duress or deception, to commit suicide.”

The legal complaint argues that ” ‘aid in dying’ is a recognized term of medical art” and “may, in the professional judgment of a physician, be a medically and ethically appropriate course of treatment.

Kevin O’Reilly, Assisted-suicide state challenged by 2 Connecticut Doctors, American Medical News, Oct. 19, 2009.