Calls to Expand New Jersey Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act

It has been only a few months since New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed the Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act. Yet, already, the editorial board of the New Jersey Law Journal is calling on the state legislature to expand the eligibility criteria for the state's new medical aid in dying law.

We will see more calls, across the country, both to expand the eligibility criteria and to relax the safeguards for MAID. For example, Oregon has already shortened the 15-day waiting period for some patients. Bills in other states eliminate the strict temporal 6-month definition of "terminal illness."

Other debates concern:

• Allowing advance requests for MAID
• Allowing other means of administration than oral or anal
• Extending MAID to minors