Blick v. Connecticut -- DWD Advocates Lose in Trial Court

Last week, in Blick v. Connecticut, Connecticut Superior Court judge Julia Aurigemma rejected a request from two doctors (Gary Blick and Ron Levine) who sought to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill, mentally competent patients who asked for help to die peacefully.  (26p Memorandum of Decision)  (Other legal documents in the case)

The plaintiff physicians argued that the state's statutory prohibition of "assisted suicide" did not include/encompass physician aid-in-dying.  But in dismissing the doctors' case, Judge  wrote that the state law against assisting suicide certainly did apply to physicians helping dying patients end their lives.  

Judge Aurigemma wrote that the issues raised in the doctors' lawsuit should be addressed by the legislature, not the courts.  She found that the assisted suicide statute "is aimed at precisely the situation presented by the plaintiffs — aiding a terminally ill patient, in unbearable pain, to end his or her own life — and precisely the situation in which physicians are most likely to participate."