New Jersey’s Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act might be a component to our healthcare system that is desperately needed. As a licensed health carepractitioner of over 25 years, I have witnessed firsthand the horrors that a long, crippling terminal illness can have on both the patient and their family. During school and throughout my career we were always taught the importance of patient dignity, right to choice, pain control and patient rights. Score one for the terminally ill.

What about those who do not have a terminal illness, yet are plagued with many of the same horrors? Weakness, crippling pain, depression, anxiety, loss of dignity, loss of quality of life. They are the same significant issues, but handled completely differently in the age of the “opioid crisis,” “War on Drugs” and Big Pharma lawsuits