By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA
The purpose will be to clarify once and for all that physician-assisted suicide is not legal in Montana.
To learn more, view our Montana page at this link.
This is one of the many heartbreaking questions asked of Dr. Louise Aronson, a geriatric doctor from San Francisco, who works with elderly patients who are stuck in isolation....
"Sometimes the doors to their rooms are open, and you just see someone sitting in a chair with tears running down their face," Aronson said, according to NBC News.
Chester Peske, a resident of a long-term care facility in Minnesota, contracted COVID-19, and though he was asymptomatic, he died shortly thereafter. His death wasn't due to the virus, however. The cause of death was listed as "social isolation/failure to thrive related to COVID-19 restrictions" in combination with his progressing Alzheimer's disease...
To read full article, click here.
By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA* 
Justice Mallon
On June 16, 2020, Justice Jillian Mallon issued a judgment describing the End of Life Choice Act as limited to voluntary euthanasia and/or physician-assisted suicide. (Judgment, page 1).
The Act, however, also allows non-voluntary death. One reason is that assisted dying (euthanasia and assisted suicide) is described as being performed by a "medical practitioner."
In practice, medical practitioners are allowed to provide medical treatment on a non-voluntary basis. For a common example, consider automobile accidents. Medical practitioners are allowed to treat accident victims on a non-voluntary basis if circumstances are determined to warrant such action. If the patient is unconscious and unable to give consent, medical treatment determined necessary by medical practitioners is nonetheless allowed to go forward.
 |
| Heather Mac Donald |