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Norwalk physician Dr. Gary Blick is suing the state of Connecticut, hoping to overturn the states assisted suicide law. Blick, who specializes in the care of those with HIV/AIDS, said patients regularly ask him to prescribe medications during their final days that would allow them to die quickly and with dignity. Many times they have begged me to help them, he said. They actually beg for these medications.
According to Connecticut law, however, a physician could be charged with second-degree manslaughter if a patient overdoses on a medicine the physician prescribed. It is a felony in Connecticut to intentionally help someone commit suicide even if the assistance is writing the prescription. Blick has been joined in his suit by Dr. Ron Levine of Greenwich.
Blick, the Medical and Research Director of CIRCLE Medical, LLC, has been treating those with HIV/AIDS for 23 years. He has made public statements supporting the rights of mentally competent, terminally ill adults to choose a peaceful end. In a press release announcing his lawsuit, Blick said, Doctors who honor their patients request for life-ending medication risk a felony conviction and imprisonment.
Wesley J. Smith of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide opposes the effort to change the law. Doctors who want to be able to legally prescribe poison so that a patient will kill themselves thats not medicine, said Smith. That is suicide as described in any dictionary.
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