Thin End Of The Pro-Death Wedge In New Mexico

This is the thin end of the wedge. A while ago two New Mexico doctors challenged the state’s laws outlawing assisted suicide. Now, with alarming predictability, come the victims of life threatening illness joining in the clamor for eventual removal of the law.

Santa Fe woman joins lawsuit to clarify state law making assisted suicide a felony

When Aja Riggs first began experiencing what she thought were symptoms of early menopause last summer, she tried holistic remedies.

When they didn't help, she had an ultrasound exam, after which her doctor told her she should probably also have a biopsy. In August, her doctor called to tell her she had uterine cancer.

"I thought there must be a mistake," she said.

The doctor said the cancer was probably in an early stage and that if her uterus was removed, she would have about a 90 percent chance of survival. But when Riggs awoke after surgery, she learned that all her reproductive organs had been removed because the cancer had spread to her ovaries and lymph nodes.

On Wednesday, the 48-year-old announced she is joining a lawsuit filed by two Albuquerque doctors to clarify a state law that makes assisted suicide a felony. It seeks to clear the way for physicians to help terminally ill patients obtain prescription medication that would allow them to choose to end their own lives without the doctor having to fear prosecution. more