Tuesday, September 21, 2021
NM Aid In Dying Law Compared to Other Statutes
A recent opinion piece in USA Today was comparing the provisions of the New Mexico Aid-in-Dying law to those in other states, Terminal patients deserve death with dignity. New Mexico aid-in-dying law sets standard.
According to the author, there are 3 sections of the statute that are improvements over statutes in other states:
- Offsetting the growing physician shortage statewide. The law mirrors the practice of medicine found in other fields and allows advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants to use their training to serve as either the prescribing or consulting clinician.
- Requiring only one written request and one 48-hour waiting period between receiving and filling the prescription for aid-in-dying medication. The prescribing provider has the ability to waive the 48-hour waiting period if the terminally ill person is likely to die during that waiting period.
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Clarifying that if a health care provider objects to participating in medical aid in dying, they must inform the terminally ill person and refer them to either a willing provider or a party who can help the terminally ill patient find assistance.
Furthermore, providers that oppose medical aid in dying must accurately and clearly disclose that on websites and in any appropriate materials given to patients.
The law also takes a different approach to the waiting period used in other states, and according to the author, Oregon shortened its waiting period a couple of years ago "to allow doctors to waive the 15-day waiting period" and recently, "California passed legislation to improve access ... by reducing the mandatory 15-day waiting period between the two requests for aid-in-dying medication to 48 hours."
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/elder_law/2021/09/nm-aid-in-dying-law-compared-to-other-statutes.html