From the Rose Law Group Growlery
By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer
Legislation to permit some terminally ill Arizona adults to voluntarily end their lives with medical assistance was dead on arrival for the current session of the state Legislature.
SB1136, called the Arizona End-of-Life Decisions Act, was blocked in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
The bill would have required a terminally ill patients who wants to end their lives to request medication in writing with two witnesses, be capable of making an informed decision and see a counselor first if suffering from a psychiatric or psychological disorder. The bill also included a 15-day waiting period before medication could be prescribed for the purpose of ending the patient’s life.
Our arrival into this world wasn’t something we had anything to say about. To make things even, we should have a say on how we exit.
The voting public, I believe, would approve of this personal choice bill, witness the overwhelming passage of “Right to Try” Prop. 303 in 2014, which would permit terminally ill patients to try unapproved or experimental drugs or treatments.
As Arizona Republic columnist E.J. Montini put it at the time: Prop. 303 wasn’t about politics. It was about hope.
Having had a brother who wanted to control how he died, I strongly urge the Senate Health and Human Services Committee to quit playing God with SB1136 and at least give it a hearing.
The bill’s sponsor, Democrat Sen. Barbara McGuire, who represents parts of Pinal and Gila counties, said she’ll continue pushing for a “death with dignity” law if re-elected
