New Mexico

2021
The “Elizabeth Whitefield End-of-Life Options Act” (HB 47) was again introduced.  The bill passed and was signed into law on April 8, 2021.
Text of HB 47

2019
The “Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Act” did not pass.

As initially proposed, the New Mexico bill (HB 90), the “Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Act,” would have permitted a non-physician to diagnose a patient and prescribe drugs to cause that patient’s death…and it could have been done by telemedicine, without ever seeing the patient in person.
Text of HB 90 as originally introduced.
Analysis of HB 90 as originally introduced.

The bill was amended on January 28.
Text of New Mexico bill as amended on January 28.
The amendments changed the definition of terminal illness and would not permit the diagnosing and prescribing via telemedicine.  It would still permit the prescribing to be done by non-physicians.

2018
Assisted suicide bill filed in House
(KRQE — December 20, 2018)
Legislation has already been filed that would make physician-assisted death legal.  The House bill, filed by Democrat Deborah Armstrong is called the Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Act.

2017
New Mexico assisted suicide bill fails.
(March 15, 2017)
Although significantly amended from its original version which would have permitted non-physicians to diagnose the patient and prescribe the lethal drugs, New Mexico’s assisted-suicide bill, titled,  the “End of Life Options Act,” failed in the Senate on March 15 by a vote of 20-22.
More on New Mexico

The New Mexico “End of Life Options Act” (HB 171) would have permitted a non-physician to diagnose a patient with a broadly defined terminal illness.  It would also have permitted that non-physician to prescribe drugs for the patient’s suicide on the same day as the diagnosis.
Text of HB 171
Analysis of HB 171

An additional bill, (SB 252) also titled the “End of Life Options Act,” was introduced in the Senate.  It was virtually identical to HB 171.
It was later amended, permitting only physicians to diagnose the patient and prescribe the drugs.  The amended version also included a short waiting period and other elements but failed to pass.
Text of original version of SB 252
Text of substitute bill (amended version of SB 252)

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New Mexico Supreme Court upholds state prohibition on assisted suicide.
(June 30, 2016)
In a unanimous decision, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that terminally ill patients cannot end their lives with help from doctors.  The decision was a resounding defeat for doctor-prescribed suicide activists who had thought they would be successful.
Supreme Court Decision (June 30, 2016)

The New Mexico case was under appealed  to the New Mexico Supreme Court.
On September 30, 2015, Not Dead Yet and five other national disability rights organizations filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the State Attorney General’s request that the state’s high court uphold a Court of Appeals ruling that physician assisted suicide is not a right under the state constitution.
Amicus Brief of Disability Rights Amici

“New Mexico court strikes down ruling that allowed assisted suicide”
(Washington Times — August 11, 2015)
The New Mexico Court of Appeals handed a defeat to the right-to-die movement Tuesday by striking down a lower-court ruling establishing physician-assisted suicide.
The three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that the district court had erred when it determined that “aid in dying is a fundamental liberty interest.”

Current law regarding assisted suicide

Assisting Suicide consists of deliberately aiding another in the taking of his own life.  Whoever commits assisting suicide is guilty of a fourth degree felony.
(N,M.Stat. § 30-2-4)

Challenge to New Mexico law

On March 15, 2012, two doctors filed a challenge to New Mexico’s law on assisted suicide in the Second Judicial District Court of New Mexico (Morris v. New Mexico).  According to attorneys in the case, the plaintiffs are seeking to exempt doctor-prescribed suicide which they call “aid-in-dying” from the assisted suicide law. Attorneys for the plaintiffs are from the ACLU of New Mexico and Denver-based Compassion & Choices.
An Amended Complaint was filed on May 9, 2012.

On January 13, 2014, New Mexico’s Second Judicial Court Judge Nan Nash ruled that terminally ill patients who are mentally competent have a constitutional right to seek a physician’s assistance in ending their own lives and that doctors could not be prosecuted under the state’s assisted suicide law.
Text of decision

“New Mexico Lower Court Parrots the Language and Platitudes of Assisted Suicide Advocacy Groups”
(Not Dead Yet — January 14, 2014)
What needs to happen next is an appeal by the New Mexico Attorney General.  Please contact AG Gary King through his Director of Communications Phil Sisneros at psisneros@nmag.gov to urge that essential next step.

“Attorney general appeals ruling on assisted suicide”
(Albuquerque Journal — March 13, 2014)
New Mexico Attorney General Gary King has appealed a recent District Court ruling that bars prosecution of physicians for aiding terminally ill patients with assisted suicide.

Articles
“New Mexico to expand nursing home visitations”
(KFOX14 — August 9, 2020)
New Mexico officials are working to create gradual re-opening plans for long-term care facilities, including expanding safe visitation at nursing  homes.
[But the guidelines for such visitations are Draconian] as described in the
“Long-Term Care Facility Visitation Plan” effective August 10, 2020.
Its stated goal is to permit one visit per month, by appointment, open window visits or visits using a plexiglass barrier, between a single family member and a COVID-negative resident.
More on Coronavirus
More on Loneliness

Assisted suicide bill filed in House
(KRQE — December 20, 2018)
Legislation has already been filed that would make physician-assisted death legal.  The House bill, filed by Democrat Deborah Armstrong is called the Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Act.

“Assisted suicide bill — it deserved to die”
(Santa Fe New Mexican — March 20, 2017)
About 15 percent of people given less than six months to live are not “terminally ill.” Thousands of people “graduate” from hospice yearly. Assisted suicide programs turn the best result under hospice — learning that you weren’t “terminal” after all — into the tragedy of dying with years or decades of life remaining….
As a progressive, I am heartened that seven Democrats joined Republicans in defeating the measure.  Protecting innocent people from misdiagnosis, insurers’ bottom lines, suicidal depression and abuse is a cause that everyone can embrace.

“NM aid-in-dying bill fails on 20-22 vote on Senate floor”
(Albuquerque Journal — March 15th, 2017)
Several senators expressed concern the legislation, Senate Bill 252, could open the door to potentially thorny legal issues and undue influence being exerted on ailing individuals.

“Physician-assisted suicide is too risky”
(Albuquerque Journal — November 30, 2016)
By providing cheap and early deaths, insurance companies can save millions of dollars each year.  The elderly, the poor, and minorities are also prone to abuse, especially if younger family members view them as a financial burden instead of an honored elder.  The dying person is guilted into their duty to die.

“New Mexico high court states assisted suicide is not a right”
(Clinical Psychiatry News — July 7, 2016)
In a unanimous decision, the New Mexico Supreme Court held that there was no such right under that state’s constitution, and that even if the right had existed, the state had several compelling reasons to restrict it.

“New Mexico high court: Doctors can’t help patients end lives”
(Las Vegas Sun — July 1, 2016)
In a 5-0 decision, the high court overturned a previous district court decision that doctors could not be prosecuted under the state’s assisted suicide law, which classifies helping with suicide as a fourth-degree felony.

“Editorial: AG makes right choice in aid-in-dying appeal”
(Albuquerque Journal — March 17, 2014)
New Mexico Attorney General Gary King is right to ask the state Court of Appeals to weigh in on a recent District Court ruling that bans prosecution of physicians if they assist terminally ill patients in dying….In filing the appeal, King says that if people want to change that law, the Legislature is the proper venue to make that change.  He has said previous efforts to enact aid-in-dying laws have failed to clear committee.

“Attorney general appeals ruling on assisted suicide”
(Albuquerque Journal — March 13, 2014)
New Mexico Attorney General Gary King has appealed a recent District Court ruling that bars prosecution of physicians for aiding terminally ill patients with assisted suicide.

“Former AG Vacco weighs in on physician-assisted suicide”
(Buffalo Law Journal — February 4, 2014)
“…the elderly, the disabled and those who cannot afford adequate treatment — are the ones most at risk for potential abuse…”
[Vacco reflects on New Mexico District Court judge’s decision]

“Judge wrong about Montana suicide-aid-law”
(Albuquerque Journal — January 31, 2014)
Jeff Essmann, President of the Montana Senate, explains the errors about Montana in Judge Nan Nash’s findings, saying,”The judge should have done her homework.”

“New Mexico Lower Court Parrots the Language and Platitudes of Assisted Suicide Advocacy Groups”
(Not Dead Yet — January 14, 2014)
The New Mexico plaintiffs are all people who seem privileged enough to be justified in their confidence that the patient in this case will not be coerced into suicide, will not be treated like an unwanted burden on those around her, and is not at risk of being administered the lethal drugs without her consent.
It would be nice if everyone with a difficult illness could have the same confidence. But in the real world, where elder abuse is on the rise, C&C’s platitudes should not distract us from our collective obligation to consider the impact on everyone, not just the privileged few.

“‘Aid in Dying’ Ruled OK in New Mexico”
(Time — January 13, 2014)
A New Mexico district judge ruled on Monday that terminally ill patients who are mentally competent have a constitutional right to seek a physician’s assistance in ending their own lives.

“Need a doc? Take a number?”
(Albuquerque Journal — January 12, 2014)
“There are shortages not only i primary care, but there are shortages in specialty physicians, ” said Jerry Harrison of New Mexico Health Resources Inc….
The result: “Longer waits, or patients must travel,” Harrison said recently, “Or, quite sincerely, people co without.”

“Right-to-die case to start today”
(Albuquerque Journal — December 11, 2013)
Plaintiffs say current law against assisted suicide is unconstitutional; woman seeks right to choose end to her life if cancer returns….The law, called the Assisted Suicide Statute, makes it a fourth=degree felony to deliberately aid another in taking his or her own life.

“Opinion: Physician-assisted suicide a slippery slope”
(Health Policy Solutions — February 18, 2013)
“Without a change to the current New Mexico law, the only thing hindering dying patients from committing suicide is their conscience…..[A]sk your physician this question: If your patient has received the prescription of Seconal that YOU prescribed and has made all his/her arrangements for death and he/she comes to your office and you find him/her on the ledge of the building: what are you, the physician obligated to do?”

“Steve Lopez: End of life case in New Mexico may affect California”
(Los Angeles Times — August 14, 2012)
Tucker [Kathryn Tucker, legal affairs director for Compassion & Choices] said California’s statute on assisting suicide is similarly vague, and if the New Mexico court rules in favor of allowing aid in dying, “it could have persuasive influence in California.”

“Doctors, patient challenge New Mexico assisted suicide ban”
(Health Policy Solutions — July 11, 2012)
The question before the court in New Mexico is absurdly simple and yet impossibly complex: What is the meaning of “assisted suicide”?
A similar lawsuit filed in Connecticut was dismissed by the state Superior Court in 2010. In its ruling the court said, “taking one’s own life even for a sympathetic reason is suicide” and therefore physician immunity from prosecution does not apply.

“Some Want A Choice At the End of the Road”
(ABQ Journal — May 20, 2012)
“I’m actually going to take a pen and write a prescription for something that will end someone’s life.”  Katherine Morris is one of two New Mexico oncologists bringing a lawsuit that asks the court to make a distinction between “assisting suicide,” which is a felony in New Mexico, and a physician “aiding in dying,” which is doing just what Morris did twice in Oregon — prescribing a lethal dose of medicine, usually Seconal pills.

“Santa Fe woman joins lawsuit to clarify state law making assisted suicide a felony”
(Source: Santa Fe New Mexican — May 9, 2012)
State law currently says, “Assisting suicide consists of deliberately aiding another in the taking of his own live. Whoever commits assisting suicide is guilty of a fourth degree felony.”
But “aid in dying is not suicide,” said Kathryn Tucker, director of legal affairs for Compassion and Choices. “People used to refer to it that way, but it’s terribly inaccurate.”
Aid in dying, she said occurs when a physician writes a prescription for a lethal dose of a medication for a mentally competent, terminally ill patient, who can then choose whether or not, when and where to ingest the medication.