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HELENA, Mont. — A Montana judge has ruled that doctor- assisted suicides are legal in the state, a decision likely to be appealed as the state argues that the Legislature, not the court, should decide whether terminally ill patients have the right to take their own life.

Judge Dorothy McCarter issued the ruling late Friday in the case of a Billings man with terminal cancer who had sued the state with four physicians who treat terminally ill patients and a nonprofit patients’ rights group.

Attorney General Mike McGrath said Saturday that attorneys in his office would discuss the ruling this week and he expected the state will appeal the ruling.