A New Mexico state lawmaker is pushing for a law to allow terminally ill patients to end their lives with help from doctors.
Rep. Bill McCamley is scheduled Tuesday to discuss his proposal before a Legislative committee in Albuquerque and could launch the beginning of a heated debate going into the next legislative session.
McCamley says a task force on the bill will submit ideas.
Last month, the New Mexico Supreme Court refused to overturn a state law preventing doctors from ending the lives of terminally ill patients. The state's assisted suicide law classifies such act as a fourth-degree felony.
The case involved a Santa Fe woman with advanced uterine cancer who wanted courts to clarify New Mexico's laws preventing her from ending her life and putting doctors at risk.
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