TRENTON — A bill giving terminally ill patients the legal authority to obtain a prescription that would allow them to end their lives cleared the Assembly Health Committee today, over the objection of critics who pleaded with the panel to spend more time to consider the measure's moral and legal implications.

The "New Jersey Death with Dignity Act" would allow adults diagnosed with a terminal disease and deemed to have only six months to live to voluntarily obtain medication "that the patient may administer" to kill themselves, according to the bill (A3328). The diagnosis must be made by the patient's treating doctor and affirmed by a consulting physician. Before the prescription is filled, patients must complete a form stating they are making this choice of their own free will. The form must be signed by two witnesses attesting the patient is capable of making the decision.

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• Controversial bill would allow terminally ill patients to decide when it's time to die

Claudia Burzichelli of Bridgewater told the Assembly Health Committee in Trenton she knows too many people in her life who would have benefited from such a law: her father, diagnosed with Parkinson's disease who shot himself in the head; a family friend with Crohn's disease and other illnesses who asphyxiated himself in a motel room; and her mother-in-law, a cancer patient who stopped eating.

Then 18 months ago, she was diagnosed with a terminal disease — stage 4 lung cancer — the 54-year-old mother told the stunned committee, which includes her brother-in-law, Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester), who sponsored the legislation.

"On the days when I have struggled to breathe or think about the stresses on my family, I would hope I might have more options than starving myself or taking my life in a violent way," Claudia Burzichelli said, fighting back sobs. "I don't know how I will truly feel if and when that time may come. But it comforts me there could be a another way, other options."

"I hope New Jersey will become a state that gives respect and dignity to those who are dying," she added.

Right-to-die laws are in effect in Washington, Oregon and Montana, said Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion and Choices of Denver. She assured the committee there have not been a surge of deaths connected to the laws, adding that half of the Oregon patients who obtain the life-ending medication never take it. "Simply knowing they control their destiny at the end of life brings them peace of mind," she said.

The two-hour committee meeting, however, drew more opponents that supporters, including those representing religious and pro-family groups, the hospice industry and physicians.

Princeton attorney Anne Studholme urged the committee to postpone voting on the bill because no one had discussed the legal and ethics implications for people with disabilities. "We don't support people's need for adequate services at home or medical care ... but this bill is going to be rushed out of committee?"

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"To let people's fear of becoming disabled drive the state's enabling of their suicide sends a terribly dangerous message to my clients," she added.

Ana Gomes, a family doctor in Warren County, questioned the bill's definition of a terminal illness and its prognosis of six months to live. "I can recount a number of cases where patients were told they have pancreatic cancer, brain tumors, blood cancers, who came to the nursing home to die, shall we say, but live to know they were either incorrectly diagnosed or arbitrarily assigned their death date."

Patrick Brannigan of the New Jersey Catholic Conference said there were moral alternatives to suicide. "Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome dangerous extraordinary ... can be legitimate ... The Catholic Church teaches there is a moral obligation to use a medical intervention to prolong life only if it holds out reasonable hope of benefit."

Before the committee vote, Assembly Committee Chairman Herb Conaway (D-Burlington) assured opponents that Burzichelli and Timothy Eustace (D-Bergen), the bill's other sponsor, would consider their objections and possibly make changes.

The committee voted 7-2 with two abstentions to approve the bill. It now heads to the full 80-member Assembly.

Follow @SusanKLivio

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