December 9, 2013

Trial over New Mexico 'right-to-die' law to begin

A legal challenge to a decades-old New Mexico law that prohibits physicians from helping terminally ill patients die is set to go to trial.

The trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday in state District Court in Albuquerque in a lawsuit field in March by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.

A Santa Fe woman with advanced uterine cancer later joined two doctors in their .

According to the lawsuit, the New Mexico doctors are seeking to be allowed to prescribe medication to who want to end their lives.

New Mexico law currently states that "whoever commits assisting suicide is guilty of a fourth-degree felony."

ACLU lawyers say the lawsuit asks the court to rule that doctors may give patients the option of ending their lives.

© 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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