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Effort to legalize assisted suicide fails in Md. Senate Effort to legalize assisted suicide fails in Md. Senate
(about 1 hour later)
Maryland legislation to allow terminally-ill adults to take their own lives was pulled by the Senate sponsor on Thursday, effectively ending a year-long push to make Maryland the sixth state in the country that offers assisted suicide. Maryland legislation to allow terminally-ill adults to take their own lives was pulled by the Senate sponsor on Thursday, effectively ending a year-long push to make Maryland the sixth state in the country where assisted suicide is legal.
Sen. Ronald Young (D-Frederick) expressed frustration on Thursday as he told reporters that he decided to withdraw the legislation because he concluded it did not have the votes to pass out of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. Sen. Ronald Young (D-Frederick) told reporters that he decided to withdraw the legislation after concluding it did not have the votes to pass out of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. A vote had been scheduled for Thursday.
[Doctor-assisted suicide bill unlikely to pass Md. Senate panel, sponsor says][Doctor-assisted suicide bill unlikely to pass Md. Senate panel, sponsor says]
A vote had been scheduled for today. The bill — which would have allowed doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to patients believed to have less than six months to live — needed six votes to move out of committee and come before the full Senate. It was strongly opposed by the Catholic Church and advocates for the disabled.
“It’s one of those issues I said at the beginning of the committee: If you don’t like it, don’t do it, but don’t tell everyone else what they have to do,” Young said. “I think it’s an individual choice.” “Had I thought it still had a chance I would have let it go,” Young said. “But I got word that it wasn’t going to pass.”
The bill — which would have allowed doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to patients believed to have less than six months to live — needed six votes to move out of committee and come before the full Senate for consideration. Only two members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery) and Sen. Lisa Gladden (D-Baltimore City) expressed support for the bill. Both signed on as co-sponsors. Five members had said they opposed the legislation.
A companion bill in the House of Delegates still has a chance of moving forward, but that is considered unlikely. Young needed all four of the remaining senators on the committee to vote in favor of the bill in order for it to advance. Some of them expressed reservations about the bill and raised concerns about elderly and disabled people being pressured to end their lives. Young said he “got word” on Thursday that two of the four planned to vote against the measure.
Noting a recent Goucher College poll that showed widespread support for assisted suicide, Young said those who oppose the bill are going against the will of the people.
“Every demographic group supports it,” he said. “Catholics support it; Jews support it; African Americans support it; Republicans support it. More than 50 percent of every group supports it and the general public, 65 percent. But I think people on the committee let their own views come in.”
Sen. Bobby A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County), chairman of the committee, said he was surprised Young pulled the measure. Zirkin said he remained conflicted on Thursday and was uncertain how he would have voted.
“I’m very torn,” Zirkin said. “It’s hard to be 100 percent one way or the other, but I hadn’t made up my mind.”
The measure was modeled after a bill that was signed into law last year in California.
A companion bill is still pending in the House of Delegates. But even if it succeeded in that chamber, it would have to be approved by the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, and then the full Senate, in order to become law.
Del. Shane Pendergrass (D-Howard), the sponsor of the House legislation, said she is weighing the merits of trying to move the legislation forward in the House, knowing it would likely be blocked in the end by the Senate panel.
“It’s a sad day for a lot of people,” Pendergrass said. “It’s very hard for me to understand anybody’s need to control someone else who has six months left to live and to tell them they don’t have this option.”