Fighting Terminal Cancer, John Jay Hooker Says He’ll Appeal Right-To-Die Ruling

John Jay Hooker says he intends to fight a Nashville judge’s ruling that he does not have the right to die.

The two-time Democratic nominee for governor and longtime political activist is rejecting Chancellor Carol McCoy’s determination that Hooker and his doctors lack the legal standing to challenge the state’s ban on physician-assisted suicide.

“In other words, I’ve got no right to raise the question,” he said. “If I don’t, well then no sick person does.”

Hooker says he’s been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has been told he has less than six months to live.

The legal fight is the latest in a long line of battles for the 85-year-old attorney. Hooker was a supporter of desegregation and an opponent of the Vietnam War. More recently, he fought for the direct election of appeals court judges; Tennessee voters ultimately decided last fall to instead give the governor and legislature the power to put people on the bench.

Hooker now argues that Tennessee laws preventing doctors from providing life-ending medications to terminally-ill patients violate the state constitution’s privacy protections. He and his lawyers also say the laws banning physician-assisted suicide are vague, because they give doctors wide latitude to prescribe large doses of pain medication — even if they know taking the drugs will kill the patient.

Hooker presented his case in a Nashville courtroom in early July. He says he’s disappointed in how long it took McCoy to reach her conclusion.

“It’s astonishing to me that Judge McCoy took almost 90 days to decide a matter in which my life — and the life of many other people — is on the line. She could have decided this from the bench on day one.”

Hooker now plans to ask the Tennessee Supreme Court to take up his appeal immediately, bypassing the lower Court of Appeals. 

Meanwhile, Hooker has been looking for support in other places. 
Earlier this week, h
e
received a report from a Davidson County grand jury that backs his right to die. 

Hooker hopes it will convince state lawmakers to act when they reconvene in January.