Persons From Other States Can't Come to New Jersey to End Their Lives

Contribution by Chris Sheldon, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, additional commentary by Margaret Dore Esq.

A federal judge ruled today that the residency requirement in New Jersey's medical aid in dying law [formerly described as physician assisted suicide and euthanasia] does not violate the US Constitution, meaning the state can keep its right to die law exclusively for residents.

The lawsuit was the third in the nation to challenge a medical aid-in-dying law’s residency requirement, which is required in ten states: Oregon, Washington, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, Maine, Montana, New Mexico and Vermont, and Washington D.C., officials said.

Of those ten, only Vermont and Oregon permit out-of-state residents to use their aid in dying laws, as a result of legal challenges brought by the former Hemlock Society, now known as Compassion & Choices.

New Jersey Update

By Alex Schadenberg (pictured at right)*

The New Jersey 2023 assisted suicide report states that there were 101 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2023 up from 91 in 2022. Assisted suicide started in New Jersey on April 12, 2019.  According to the report:

101 people were known to have died by assisted suicide, 

13 people received the lethal poison but died a natural death, 

3 people received the lethal poison but had not died and 

2 people received the lethal poison and died but the cause of death is unknown.

When the cause of death is unknown, it usually means that no report was submitted. Therefore it may have been an assisted suicide death, but no report was filed.