Blick v. Connecticut

On June 2, 2010, Judge Julia Aurigemma ruled to dismiss Blick v Connecticut, which sought to clarify the ability of mentally competent, terminally ill patients to obtain aid in dying from their physician if they find their dying process unbearable.

Read Judge Aurigemma's decision here. Compassion & Choices is considering all options, including appeal.

Two Connecticut doctors are suing to help patients die with dignity. CNN's Randi Kaye reports.

Read more about this story from Anderson Cooper 360°.

While courts have addressed constitutional questions connected with aid in dying, no court has directly considered whether a mentally competent, terminally ill patient’s desire to bring about a peaceful death should be considered “suicide.”

Connecticut has seen a series of widely covered and tragic cases in which a dying patient asked a family member or friend to help the patient precipitate death. If the patient had been able to turn to their physician and request aid in dying, these tragedies could have been avoided. In 2004, John Welles was dying of cancer and ready to end his suffering. While he struggled outside with his walker, he asked his friend Hunt Williams to carry his loaded .38 caliber revolver. Hunt did what his friend asked, walked down the road and called out “God bless,” before he heard the blast that ended John’s life. A year later, Hunt was convicted of “assisting a suicide.”

Connecticut physicians Gary Blick and Ron Levine are asking a Connecticut court to rule that the state assisted suicide statute does not reach their conduct in providing aid in dying. Dr. Blick is the Medical and Research Director of CIRCLE Medical, LLC in Norwalk, Ct. His specialty is in infectious disease and treatment of HIV/AIDS. Dr. Blick was a Resident at Yale University School of Medicine and Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, CT. He was both an attending and consulting physician at Greenwich Hospital and was the Founder and Chairman of the Greenwich Hospital AIDS Task Force.

Dr. Levine is a primary care internist in Greenwich. He served internship and residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Dr Levine is both an Attending Physician and a Clinical Instructor at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut. He is also a Clinical Instructor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

The physician plaintiffs are represented by Compassion & Choices Legal Director Kathryn Tucker, Connecticut appellate specialist Dan Krisch and noted Connecticut civil-rights attorney Jamie L. Mills.

Listen to Audio: October 7, 2009 Blick v. Connecticut Press Conference here.

At a press conference held October 7, 2009, Mr. Williams discussed why he believes this case is vitally important:

“I’m here today to support the lawsuit to have the court declare that a physician who aids a terminally ill, mentally competent adult in their dying not be regarded as assisting a suicide. John Welles should not have had to shoot himself. John Welles was dying of cancer and should have been able to have his doctor prescribe medication to ease his dying.

Friends, family and neighbors should not have to be put in the position that I was placed in..

Medical professionals should be able to provide medical assistance for a peaceful end, and ease the dying of cancer and leukemia patients.

It is only through the outpouring of support from my community that I can speak before you here today. Otherwise, I might be in prison.

It’s time for the courts to make it clear that John Welles deserved better, that I deserved better, and that terminal patients and their families in our great state deserve better.”

(Dr. Gary Blick with Compassion & Choices Legal Director Kathryn Tucker)