23 States Defeat Assisted Suicide in 2017!

July 3, 2017

From the Patients Rights Action Fund

Legislative sessions are officially over for the spring and, in some states, for the year. Assisted suicide opponents were extremely successful in preventing any more states from legalizing assisted suicide. In several of the states, the battles were very difficult but our coalitions worked extremely hard and prevailed.

Defeated Bills to Legalize Assisted Suicide in 2017
• Oklahoma: HJR 1009 (Ballot measure) — died in committee
• North Carolina: HB 789 – died in committee
• New York: S.3151/A.2383 , A.3598 “End-of-Life Options” Act — no committee votes taken, stalled in committee
• Delaware: HB 160 – passed in committee, full House vote stalled
• Rhode Island: House Bill 5468, Senate Bill 224 – no action taken, died in committee
• Oregon: SB 893 (allowed health care agents to fulfill requests for lethal drugs) — died in committee
• Mississippi: Death with Dignity Act Senate Bill 2283 – died in committee
• Utah: HB 76 – tabled in committee
• Tennessee: SB 1378, HB 1394 – withdrawn
• Maryland: SB 354– withdrawn; HB 370 – died in committee
• Wyoming: HB 0122 – bill was drafted but not introduced, dead at this time
• New Mexico: House Bill 171, SB 252 – defeated by Senate vote
• Indiana: SB 273, HB 1561 – died in committee
• Nebraska: Legislative Bill 450 – died, not a priority bill
• Connecticut: H.B. No. 6024, HB 6238 – died in committee
• Kansas: HB 2120 Death With Dignity Act– died in committee
• Arizona: HB 2336 – died in committee
• Iowa: Senate File 215, House File 299– died in committee
• Missouri: Death With Dignity Act HB 524 – attempt to add to another bill failed
• Hawaii: SB 1129 — passed in the Senate and died in a House committee.
• Alaska: HB 54 – Voluntary Termination of Life – held in committee without action
• Maine: LD 1066 — An Act to Promote Life with Dignity; LD 347 –An Act To Support Death with Dignity – passed in the Senate and defeated by House vote
• Nevada: SB 261 – passed the Senate and died in a House committee

Active Bills to Legalize/Expand Assisted Suicide in 2017:
• New Jersey: S 2474 –carryover from 2016
• Massachusetts: H.1194, S.1225
• Pennsylvania: SB 238
• Minnesota: SF 1572 – End of Life Options Act
• Wisconsin: AB 216, SB 312 — Compassionate Choices
• Michigan: HB 4461 — legalizes assisted suicide
• Michigan: HB 4462 – amends criminal sentencing standards to eliminate the penalties for assisting a suicide

Ballot Measures
• South Dakota: Signatures being gathered for a November 2018 ballot measure.

The California assisted suicide report indicates that there were 111 assisted suicide deaths in 2016. Last month the assisted suicide lobby stated that they facilitated 504 lethal prescriptions in the first full year of the California law. (Link to the article).