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 The lawsuit, filed against New York Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman in Manhattan Supreme Court, claimed that a New York law
making it a crime to cause or aid another person to commit suicide
does not apply to doctors who prescribe fatal drugs to mentally
competent, terminally ill patients who ask for them.
Three of the doctors in the case - Timothy Quill, Samuel Klagsbrun
and Howard Grossman - were also plaintiffs in a 1997 case before the
U.S. Supreme Court challenging the New York assisted-suicide law
under the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court ruled against them.
All three have been prominent advocates for doctor-assisted suicide,
which advocates prefer to call aid-in dying.
One of the patients in the lawsuit, Eric Seiff, 81, is a former
Manhattan assistant district attorney who is being treated for
cancer.
Seiff is not currently terminally ill, but the other two patients
are. Sara Myers, 60, has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou
Gehrig's disease, and Steve Goldenberg, 55, has multiple HIV-related
illnesses. Both told a news conference that they do not yet want to
die but want to have the choice in the future.
Nurse and end-of life consultant Judith Schwarz, Charles Thornton, a
Rochester, New York, neurologist, and non-profit End of Life Choices
New York are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs say in the lawsuit that the state's law against
assisted suicide was never meant to apply to doctors helping
mentally competent, terminally ill patients. They said helping such
patients die was not assisted suicide but rather akin to withdrawing
a patient from a ventilator.
Even if the law was meant to prohibit doctor-assisted suicide, they
said, the court should rule that enforcing it violates patients' due
process and equal protection rights under the state Constitution.
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Besides Schneiderman, the lawsuit named the district attorneys of
Westchester, Monroe, Saratoga, Bronx and New York counties, where
the plaintiffs live or practice medicine.
Schneiderman's spokeswoman, Elizabeth DeBold, declined to comment.
Oregon, Washington and Vermont are currently the only states with
laws explicitly allowing doctor-assisted suicide, and California's
legislature is considering a similar law. A New Mexico judge has
ruled in favor of doctor-assisted suicide, though the ruling is
being appealed.
The case is Myers et al v. Schneiderman et al, New York Supreme
Court, New York County.
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson; Editing by Ted Botha and Dan Grebler)
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