Connecticut Doctors Sue to Allow Assisted Suicide.

From ConnPost:

Two southwestern Connecticut doctors said Wednesday that they are suing the state to allow them to provide "aid in dying" for mentally competent, terminally ill patients.

Dr. Gary Blick, a Norwalk physician, and Dr. Ron Levine, of Greenwich, said during a news conference in the state Capitol that "terminal sedation," the only legal treatment for them to offer, is inappropriate.

The choice of providing dying patients "medically and ethically appropriate treatment," is the reason for the lawsuit filed in state Superior Court, Blick said.

Sheldon Smith, 86, of Bethany, dying fron abdominal cancer, said "I've lived a great life" and intends to continue living until the pain gets unbearable.

"However, I'm quite concerned about how the very end of my life will unfold," he said. "I know the type of pain that abdominal cancer can cause and I'd like a physician to be able to prescribe medication that I could consume to bring about a peaceful death if my dying process becomes intolerable."

Kathryn Tucker, legal director of the advocacy group Compassion and Choices, said the state lawsuit is the first of its kind and will attack Connecticut law as antiquated.