Baxter and the Return of Physician-Assisted Suicide (Essays‪)‬

The term "physician-assisted suicide" usefully identifies a practice that is, and should be, a source of considerable controversy these days. Typically, the practice in question involves two crucial actors: a doctor and a terminally ill patient whose death is likely to occur within a short time. Knowing the condition of the patient and responding to the patient's request, the doctor prescribes a drug that should cause the patient's death shortly after it is taken. That's the "physician-assisted" half of the practice. The "suicide" occurs, if it ever does, shortly after the patient ingests the drug. Physician-assisted suicide is legal in Oregon and Washington. Until very recently, it has been illegal in every other state, and claims to its being a federal constitutional right were rejected by the United States Supreme Court a dozen years ago in the Glucksberg and Quill decisions. (1) But a recent development in Montana has altered the landscape somewhat. On December 31 of last year, the Montana Supreme Court decided Baxter v. Montana, a case that most observers thought would clarify the status of physician-assisted suicide under Montana's constitution. (2) The court, it turns out, decided not to do that--not now, at least. It decided instead whether a physician who participates in a physician-assisted suicide in Montana--and does so in accordance with the rules that have been developed for this practice in Oregon and Washington--could lawfully be convicted of violating Montana's homicide statute after the patient died from taking the medicine that the physician prescribed.