AIDS Patient Wins OK for Doctor-Aided Suicide

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida judge ruled Friday that a man dying of AIDS has the right to commit suicide with the help of his doctor and that the doctor cannot be prosecuted.

It is the first time any state judge in the nation has supported doctor-assisted suicide, said Douglas Kmiec, a constitutional law professor at Notre Dame.

Circuit Judge Joseph Davis said his ruling applies only to the case of 35-year-old Charles Hall, the lone survivor among three who brought a lawsuit seeking the right to have a doctor prescribe a lethal dose of drugs without interference from the state.

Hall “has a constitutional right to decide to terminate his suffering and determine the time and manner of his death,” Davis said.

As for Dr. Cecil McIver, who has agreed to write the prescription, the judge said: “As an individual and a physician, he can determine his own ethical, religious, and moral beliefs in declining or agreeing to assist. Like Mr. Hall, he has the freedom of choice.”

The state said it will appeal, thereby automatically staying the decision. The state has argued that doctor-assisted suicide is manslaughter, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. It expects an eventual hearing before the state Supreme Court.

McIver and the three patients argued in the lawsuit that a privacy provision in the state Constitution gives dying, but mentally competent, people the right to obtain a lethal prescription from a willing physician.

Hall said he contracted the AIDS virus through a blood transfusion in 1981. His complications over the years have included a brain cyst, hepatitis B and partial blindness.