Montana Judge Rules that Assisted Suicide is Legal
A Montana judge, Dorothy McCarter, made a ruling Friday evening that doctor-assisted suicide is acceptable if the patient is competent and terminally-ill, and wishes to "die with dignity". The case was brought to court by Robert Baxter, 75, a terminally-ill cancer patient who was suing the state for his right to decide when his terminal condition became intolerable. Montana's Attorney General Mike McGrath expects that the state will appeal the ruling, saying that it should be a decision made by the state Legislature and the not the court.
The New York Times coverage of this story is taken from the Associated Press and is very brief. Each paragraph is only 1-2 sentences long. It is made to be read as a quick briefing of an event, giving little detail but accurate overview. It includes quotes from Baxter and McCarter.
The FOX News coverage was also taken from the Associated Press, so it shares similar information with the NYT article, but it is lengthier and more detail-oriented. In addition to McCarter and Baxter, the article includes a quote from McGrath as well as a paraphrased statement from Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Anders saying that the state will not be prepared to make a constitutional rights ruling about doctor-assisted suicide since "competent" and "terminally-ill" have not been explicitly defined yet. The article also includes McCarter's rebuttal to this. She said that both of these conditions can be deemed and verified by the doctor's professional standards. Overall, the article gives more attention to the details of this event that the NYT article does.