Is N.J. ready for aid-in-dying legislation?

A group that helps its members to plan their funerals gathered Sunday to learn about legislation in New Jersey that would help them — if they were terminally ill — to plan their deaths. New Jersey's Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act already has passed the Assembly. It is expected to come to a vote in the state Senate later this year. Although Gov. Chris Christie has said he would veto such legislation, the bill's advocates hope his successor, to be elected in November, will sign it into law.

"I find it likely we will see this pass and become law in the next legislative session, which starts next year," Ethan Andersen, a 23-year-old advocate for the bill, told the inaugural meeting of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Northern New Jersey in Parsippany on Sunday. "In the meantime, we still have a lot of work to do." The New Jersey measure, patterned after a law passed in Oregon in 1997, would allow a terminally ill, mentally competent, adult resident of New Jersey to request and use a prescription for lethal medication. Six states and the District of Columbia already have such laws. Two physicians would be required to attest that the person had less than six months to live. The request would have to be made in writing and witnessed by two people — including one who was neither a family member, a beneficiary of the patient's will, or the attending physician. A second request would have to be made orally. The person who requested it would have to be capable of taking the medicine himself or herself.

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Assemblyman John Burzichelli, a Gloucester County Democrat who introduced the legislation in 2014 and 2016 with Assemblyman Tim Eustace of Maywood, said he considered it "not a question of if, but when" the bill will become law.

"People recognize the need for it through their own experiences, and those of people close to them," Burzichelli said Friday.

Eustace, a chiropractor, said he heard about it quite a bit from his patients. "It's a timely thing, that we take care of our relatives at least as well as we care for our pets," Eustace said.

A Rutgers-Eagleton Poll in early 2015 found that nearly two-thirds of New Jersey residents — 63 percent — supported the measure. An additional 29 percent opposed it, and 8 percent had no opinion. The bill died without a vote in the state Senate that year, after passing the Assembly in 2014.

Members of the Funeral Consumers Alliance had many practical questions for Andersen:

How does medication actually work? Most patients receive a prescription for an oral dose of a barbiturate, Andersen said. The contents of the capsules usually are dissolved in water, and the patient drinks it. Within five minutes, Andersen said, the patient falls asleep, "and in a half-hour, they're dead."
Is the patient required to use the medicine, once it has been prescribed? No, Andersen said. About one-third of patients prescribed the medicine in Oregon have chosen not to use it.
Are there limits on when it can be taken? No, a terminally ill patient can take it when he or she chooses to. The average patient in Oregon waits 45 days to take it, Andersen said.

Opposition to the measure in New Jersey has come from the New Jersey Catholic Conference and the Medical Society of New Jersey, which represents physicians. To many members of the group, information about the New Jersey measure was new. "I truly want there to be these options," said Thea Lintern of Morristown. "I like that the bill is 20 pages long. He made it very clear that it's very thoughtful. I want the option there to end it on your own terms."

A 90-year-old, who asked that his name not be used, said he favors the legislation, "but I hope I don't have to use it." The Rev. Joseph McCarthy, a Methodist minister, said attitudes toward "death with dignity" are evolving just as attitudes toward gay rights have evolved. "We're already doing it, anyway," he said, although such actions are not openly acknowledged. "Today I'm 77," he said. "Over the course of my life I've had to grow and adjust and learn. Hopefully, individuals mature as we age."

The Funeral Consumers Alliance, formed this year through the merger of the Memorial Societies of Northeast and North Central New Jersey, is one of 70 such organizations nationwide. They exist to educate their members about funeral options and provide price comparisons for various funeral services. For more information: www.fcannj.org

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