A New Jersey law that permits terminally ill people to seek life-ending drugs applies only to residents of the state and not those from beyond its borders, a federal appeals court ruled.

The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments challenging New Jersey's residency requirement while acknowledging how fraught end-of-life decisions can be. The court noted that not all states have adopted the same approach.

“Death brings good things to an end, but rarely neatly,” U.S. Circuit Court Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote in the Friday opinion. “Many terminally ill patients face a grim reality: imminent, painful death. Some may want to avert that suffering by enlisting a doctor’s help to end their own lives. New Jersey lets its residents make that choice — but only it

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