DELAWARE -- A bill that would allow terminally ill adult Delawareans to end their own life with a doctor's consent was approved in the House Thursday.
HB 140 is known as an "end of life", "right to die", or "assisted suicide" bill.
This version of the bill is the only proposal to make it to a floor vote. The measure needed 21 affirmative votes to pass. Lawmakers voted 21 to 16 for the measure. A "right to die" bill has been introduced by an upstate lawmaker every year since 20-15.
For Laurel, DE resident Joe Henderson, he thinks the law could have been beneficial to his late wife.
"You're loved ones would be suffering and you don't know how long their suffering would go on, and if you love them, you want them to be comfortable," says Henderson.
Sara Carpenter tells us how her grandmother and mother-in-law's long, painful battles with illness gave her insight.
"They both said, you know, I just wish God would take me," says Carpenter. "It's really up to that person, and what they're actually going through mentally and physically at that time."
However, Laurel Church of Christ Minster Dale Nelson believes that religious belief should be a part of any final decision.
"With God involved, anything is possible," says Nelson. "I think if we pull the plug a little too early, we kind of rule out that possibility."
Dr. Bruce Miller of the Atlantic Coast Baptist College takes the same view.
"As a minister of the gospel, I believe God is the author of life and the author of death and His time, in Ecclesiastes, he says there's a time to be born and a time to die," Miller.
If the bill becomes law, Delaware will become the 12th state where the practice of physician assisted death is legal.
