Skip to main content

The Assisted Suicide Bills That Have Opponents Up in Arms

Share This article

This year, 15 states are considering laws legalizing assisted suicide, but bills in two states have some patients-rights advocates especially worried.

In New Mexico, the "End of Life Options Act" (House Bill 171) would allow medical professionals to diagnose a terminal illness and provide life-ending medication on the same day, with no second opinion required.

In Hawaii, Senate Bill 357 does not require a second opinion to confirm a terminal illness before life-ending drugs are prescribed.

Rita Marker, the executive director of Patients Rights Council (PRC), opposes assisted suicide legislation and told Baptist Press that "no other state has proposed a bill seriously like" House Bill 171 in New Mexico.  She described the Hawaii bill as "just absolutely incredible."

The controversy over legalizing assisted suicide is once again in the spotlight, thanks to these proposed measures and a Supreme Court nominee who has cultivated an expertise in the issue.

President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, is known for his expertise on assisted suicide and euthanasia and would likely provide a major influence in any court decision on the issue, should the Senate confirm him.  In 2006 he wrote "The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia" in which he analyzed the ethical and legal questions surrounding both issues.  

The Washington Post has reported that Gorsuch's opposition to both practices is revealed in the book.  He wrote "the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong" and also discusses the "inviolability" of human life.

The Supreme Court has not considered any case involving assisted suicide since 2006.

 

Share This article

About The Author

Heather
Sells

Heather Sells covers wide-ranging stories for CBN News that include religious liberty, ministry trends, immigration, and education. She’s known for telling personal stories that capture the issues of the day, from the border sheriff who rescues migrants in the desert to the parents struggling with a child that identifies as transgender. In the last year, she has reported on immigration at the Texas border, from Washington, D.C., in advance of the Dobbs abortion case, at crisis pregnancy centers in Massachusetts, and on sexual abuse reform at the annual Southern Baptist meeting in Anaheim