新澤西州將允許絕癥患者合法自殺

新澤西州將允許絕癥患者合法自殺

Terminally ill New Jersey adults will be able to decide when it’s time to die starting Thursday, when the state begins allowing patients to self-administer lethal drugs.

從周四開始，身患絕癥的新澤西州成年人將能夠決定何時死亡，屆時該州將開始允許患者自行使用致命藥物。

The “Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act” lets mentally sound Garden State residents with six months or fewer left to live request a cocktail of drugs to end their lives.

“為絕癥而死的醫(yī)療援助法案”，允許心智健全的花園州居民，在生命只剩下六個月或更少的時間里，請求一種雞尾酒藥物來結束他們的生命。

“This law provides incredible peace of mind to people in my situation, knowing they have this option within reach,” said Susan Boyce, an advocate for the law and potentially one of its beneficiaries, according to NJ.com. “It does a lot to counteract the fear and uncertainty about what the end is going to be like, and are you going to be able to stand it.”

據NJ.com報道，該法律的倡導者、潛在受益者之一蘇珊·博伊斯(Susan Boyce)說:“這項法律給我這種情況的人帶來了難以置信的平靜，因為他們知道自己有這個選擇。”“它能很大程度上抵消人們對結局的恐懼和不確定性，你能承受得了嗎?”

Boyce, 56, has a slow-moving and incurable disease that will eventually leave her unable to breathe and render her immune system ineffectual.

56歲的博伊斯患有一種慢性不治之癥，最終會導致她無法呼吸，導致免疫系統(tǒng)失效。

The question of whether patients should be allowed to end their own lives has become increasingly pressing as medical technology’s ability to keep people physically alive has outpaced its ability to provide an acceptable quality of life while doing so.

是否應該允許病人結束自己的生命，這個問題變得越來越緊迫，因為醫(yī)療技術讓人活著的能力，已經超過了它在這樣做的同時提供可接受的生活質量的能力。

Boyce and others have advocated for the law’s adoption in New Jersey for eight years.

八年來，博伊斯等人一直主張在新澤西州采用這項法律。

“I firmly believe in this law, and I had the ability to speak out, to represent a group of patients who are terminally ill and don’t have the strength,” Boyce said.

博伊斯說:“我堅定地相信這項法律，我有能力代表一群身患絕癥但沒有這種能力的病人發(fā)聲。”

The state-approved the new measure and Gov. Phil Murphy signed the bill, despite his reservations as a Catholic, in April.

盡管菲爾墨菲作為天主教徒持保留意見，但州政府批準了這項新措施，并于4月簽署了該法案。

Patients must prove their residency by providing physicians with a valid state-issued ID, voter registration, recent New Jersey tax filing or “any other government record that the attending physician reasonably believes to demonstrate the individual’s current residency in this State,” according to the law.

根據這項法律，患者必須向醫(yī)生提供有效的州簽發(fā)的身份證、選民登記、最近的新澤西州稅務申報，或“主治醫(yī)生認為能夠證明個人目前在該州居住情況的任何其他政府記錄”，以證明其合法居住權。

A total 3,478 people in the US have been allowed to end their lives under death-with-dignity laws passed in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, according to information compiled by NJ.com.

據NJ.com網站收集的信息顯示，美國加利福尼亞州、科羅拉多州、夏威夷州、俄勒岡州、佛蒙特州和華盛頓州通過了“尊嚴死亡法”，共有3478人被允許結束生命。

Legal challenges to right-to-die laws in Washington DC and Montana, meanwhile, have held up the practice there.

與此同時，華盛頓特區(qū)和蒙大拿州對死亡權利法的法律挑戰(zhàn)阻礙了這種做法。