DOVER, Del. (WBOC/AP) Legislation filed on Thursday in Delaware's General Assembly would allow a terminally ill person to request and administer medication to end their own life, so long as a doctor signs off on the patient's prognosis and decision-making ability.
House Bill 140, titled the "The Ron Silverio/Heather Block End of Life Options Law," is the latest version of legislation aimed at allowing physician-assisted suicide in Delaware. It is named after two advocates for past iterations of the legislation who have died prior to its passage.
Previous attempts have not been successful and failed to even get a floor vote. Similar measures have been passed in Oregon and, more recently, New Jersey.
The legislation says a terminally ill patient with six or fewer months left to live can end their lives using medication in a "humane and dignified manner if both the individual's attending physician and a consulting physician agree on the individual's diagnosis and prognosis and believe the individual has decision-making capacity, is making an informed decision, and is acting voluntarily."
The bill also contains a number of a safeguards, such as prohibiting someone from trying to obtain life-ending medication and states that someone cannot qualify for physician-assisted suicide because of age or disability.
Two waiting periods would also be required before a doctor could prescribe the life-ending medication.
The bill also mandates that the death certificate for anyone who commits doctor-assisted suicide state that the cause of death was the underlying illness, not suicide. That provides a mechanism that would allow a beneficiary to collect on a life insurance policy that otherwise excludes coverage for suicide.
"This is an issue about allowing adults facing a terminal illness to make critical decisions about their life," said chief sponsor Rep. Paul Baumbach, D-Newark. "Many people in the last stages of life wish to retain their autonomy, including the ability to make decisions regarding their life and their suffering."
The bill is similar to legislation that Baumbach first proposed in 2015 and resurrected in 2017, but which has never made it to a floor vote. Baumbach said this year's version of the bill, which has six Democratic co-sponsors, contains several changes from his previous proposal.
One difference is that it defines "terminal illness" as a condition in which the expectation of death within six months stems from "medical probability," rather than a "reasonable medical judgment."
The latest proposal also specifically requires and defines informed consent and the information a physician must provide to a patient about alternative treatments.
The legislation also requires a doctor to refer a patient requesting assisted suicide to a psychiatrist or psychologist if the doctor believes the person lacks the capacity to make an informed decision.
Despite the changes, the legislation may still face significant opposition from lawmakers in the General Assembly.
Rep. Sean Lynn (D-Dover) has opposed the bill in the past and said it raises difficult ethical questions.
"Do we have the right, or should we have, or should we want the legal right not to suffer?" he said.
The legislation could also face a potential veto from Gov. John Carney (D), who said in a statement that he is opposed to the proposal.
"I believe we should do everything we can to enable people with terminal illnesses to die peacefully. I know this is an extremely difficult and personal issue for many of my constituents, and I have sympathy and compassion for those who are grappling with these painful questions. Ultimately though, I believe enabling physicians to facilitate suicide crosses a boundary that I'm just not comfortable crossing," he said.
The Medical Society of Delaware also maintains its opposition to assisted suicide, saying it raises "ethical, clinical, and other concerns," and "fundamentally alters the medical profession's role in society."
"We really feel that it is a poorly thought out bill and palliative care is the way to go --- not physician-assisted suicide," he said.
John McNeal, director of the State Council For Persons With Disabilities, said his organization has not analyzed the bill introduced Thursday but still "strongly opposes" the concept of assisted suicide.