More than 100 terminally ill patients in New Mexico used the Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act to use medical assistance in dying in the past year. This is what End of Life Options New Mexico (EOLONM) Board Secretary-Treasurer MaryKay Brady of Las Cruces said.
The law
On June 18, the Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act went into effect. Terminally ill New Mexico residents can now receive aid-in-dying medication. 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. 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. The law has a major improvement in requiring only a 48-hour waiting period.
The organisation End of Life Options New Mexico earlier published their first annual report:
“Read our 2021 annual report, the first in the life of our new non-profit. It retraces our successful legislative journey and describes the exciting beginning of our new journey of service – to bring to light the importance of understanding our right to self-determination and the choices that all people deserve at the end of their lives.” You can read the report below:
New Mexico
United States of America