Assisted Suicide: Legal in Montana...for Now

Posted By: Madame Fleur

Jan. 6, 2008

Montana finds itself in the center of the ever popular “right to death” debate after doctor-assisted suicide was ruled legal by Montana ’s First Judicial Court earlier this month.  Appeals are forthcoming but for today, Montana is one of only three states to allow doctor-assisted suicide.

The lawsuit was brought against the state by 75 year-old terminally ill Billings resident Robert Baxter, 4 doctors that treat terminally ill patients and the nonprofit patients’ rights group Compassion & Choices. 

"I value my independence and dignity, as do all Montanans," said Baxter, a 75-year-old retired truck driver. "I have lived an independent life. Now, I am dying of cancer. It's a horrible disease. I am glad to know that the court respects my choice to die with dignity if my situation becomes intolerable."

District Court Judge Dorothy McCarter issued the ruling on December 5, asserting that mentally competent, terminally ill Montanans have the right to obtain medications that can be self-administered to bring about a peaceful death if they find their situation unbearable.  The ruling gives doctors the right to prescribe such medication without fear of criminal prosecution. 

"The Montana constitutional rights of individual privacy and human dignity, taken together, encompass the right of a competent terminally (ill) patient to die with dignity," McCarter said in the ruling.

Montana’s consitution exemplifies the sentiment of a people who prefer not to have the government interfere with their private affairs.  Even so, Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath said he expects the state will file an appeal.  Currently, Montana has no evaluation process, safeguards or regulations to provide guidance or oversight for doctor-assisted suicide. The state also said it was premature to declare constitutional rights for a competent, terminally ill patient because the terms "competent" or "terminally ill" had yet to be defined.

Compassion & Choices Legal Director Kathryn Tucker teamed with Montana litigator, Mark Connell, in arguing for Bob Baxter and the physicians. "This ruling is consistent with a long line of cases recognizing that Montana's Constitution protects the decision-making power of its citizens in the most intimate and personal areas of their lives," said Tucker.  

Connell also praised the ruling, saying "The court has found that it is the individual patients who should be entitled to make these critical decisions for themselves and their families, and not the government. Our state constitution’s rights of privacy and individual dignity compel this result, and the courts ruling is consistent with Montanan's view of the limited role the state should play in such matters."