On April 8, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed New Mexico’s Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act into law. With the Governor’s signature, New Mexico became the 10th state and 11th jurisdiction in the United States to allow people with a terminal illness to die the way they want.
The Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act goes into effect on June 18, 2021. Over 72 million people now live in a state with an assisted dying option.
The new law is named after Elizabeth Whitefield, a New Mexico judge who died of cancer in 2018 after years of lobbying for the passage of an aid in dying law. Rep. Debbie Armstrong, D-Albuquerque, the main sponsor of the bill, said Whitefield would have been ‘greatly relieved, satisfied, happy’ to know her effort finally met success. Armstrong’s daughter Erin, who is in her 40s, spoke in favor of the bill before a legislative committee earlier this year. She told the lawmakers she has been fighting a 20-year battle with cancer. While she ‘desperately’ wants to keep living, she said, she is aware she likely will not survive the disease. Armstrong said her daughter now has a ‘great relief that she doesn’t have to worry about being in agony when the time comes.’
The law
Similar to the laws in other U.S. states, the law requires a “terminal” diagnosis of less than six months to live and requires the dying person to be able to “self-administer” the needed medications, but has a major improvement in requiring only a 48-hour waiting period.
- NO 14 day waiting period but a 48 hr. waiting period between the time a scrip is written and the time it can be filled, this waiting period can be waived if the patient is near death.
- NPs and PAs can be prescribing providers, as long as one provider is an MD or DO.
- The patient needs only one provider if already enrolled in hospice. Only one “ask”.
- Universal “right to know.”
- A provider cannot be sanctioned in any way for participating or not participating.
New Mexico
United States of America