‘Right to die’ advocates testify before New Jersey lawmakers

The New Jersey Assembly Judiciary Committee heard testimony Monday regarding a “right to die” bill.
The Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act would allow terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to ask their doctor to prescribe an assisted suicide drug.
Monmouth County resident Susan Boyce testified Monday. Boyce suffers from Alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic disease and terminal illness.
"Just knowing that this would be an option, would give me huge piece of mind,” she says. “That I could live my life and know that I have some control over the end of it."
But some who are against the bill say that it could change the relationship between a patient and their doctor.
"Patients need to be in a situation where they can trust that their doctors are out for the best for them,” says Georgetown professor Dr. Daniel Sulmasy. “Once we allow assisted suicide to be in the atmosphere, it poisons the relationship, poisons the trust between patients and physicians."
The bill will begin to make its way to votes in the Legislature if it is passed by the committee.