Dear Editor: Right to Medical Aid-in-Dying

Dear Editor,

The Montana Legislature is considering a bill to prohibit medical aid-in-dying. Senate Bill 136 declares that doctors who provide this end-of-life option for certain terminally ill patients can be prosecuted for homicide, like murderous felons. SB 136 recently passed the Senate and is now in the House.

Under a 2009 State Supreme Court ruling, medical aid-in-dying was found legal in Montana. The term refers to the process by which a doctor writes an oral prescription for a patient who (1) is an adult, (2) has been diagnosed as terminally ill (likely to die within six months), (3) s...