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New Mexico Appeals Court Hears Assisted Suicide Case

Do terminally ill patients in New Mexico already have a right to end their lives?

That's what the New Mexico Court of Appeals is set to decide after hearing arguments Monday from the state and lawyers from a terminally ill woman.

The case involves a Santa Fe woman with advanced uterine cancer who is asking the courts to clarify New Mexico's laws preventing her from ending her life and putting doctors in legal trouble.

Last year, Second Judicial District Judge Nan Nash ruled the New Mexico Constitution prohibits the state from depriving a person of life, liberty or property without due process.

The New Mexico Attorney General's Office appealed the ruling.

The court battle comes as aid-in-dying laws have been introduced in California, Pennsylvania, Wyoming and Washington, D.C.

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