Posted on 01/17/2009 1:03:36 PM PST by wagglebee
As the Friday-evening deadline for requesting bills approached, two requests for legislation to limit the effects of a Cistrict Court ruling giving Montanans a right to doctor-assisted suicide were submitted to bill drafters.
Both bills are being promoted by a cohort of pro-life groups that ultimately want to see doctor-assisted suicide banned in Montana.
Neither bill has yet been drafted, so the exact wording is still up in the air. But Gregg Trude, executive director of Right to Life Montana, said one bill would seek to tightly restrict how doctor-assisted suicide is administered in the state, while the other would put a constitutional amendment to ban it on the ballot.
Also working on the legislation is the Montana Catholic Conference and the Montana Family Foundation.
The legislation comes behind a bill introduced by Rep. Dick Barrett, D-Missoula, which would also set parameters for physicians prescribing life-ending medication.
Giving rise to these legislative efforts is Montana District Judge Dorothy McCarter’s ruling finding that Montanans have a constitutional right to seek life-ending treatment if they are suffering from a terminal illness.
Livingston man Steve Stoelb, 54, suffers from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a terminal illness. Stoelb was originally a co-defendant in the lawsuit that led to McCarter’s ruling, and his lawyers say McCarter’s ruling gives him the go-ahead to pursue doctor-assisted suicide if he so chooses.
But McCarter’s ruling also left some questions about how doctor-assisted suicide will be administered, prompting legislators seek laws regulating the practice.
The proposed constitutional amendment would specifically stating that doctor-assisted suicide is not allowed in Montana, and a call to put it on the ballot would require two-thirds of the Legislature’s support.
Jeff Laszloffy, president of the Montana Family Foundation, said his group hopes to see legislation that would only allow doctors who specialize in the type of illness a patient has prescribe life-ending medication. The group also wants to require a waiting period.
Also, he said his group is seeking legislation to ensure no one involved in a patient’s death would make money off it, something he said Barrett’s bill does not do.
“We hope to pass a law that would put sideboards on that wide-open decision,” he said.
Barrett’s bill requires that a person seeking doctor-assisted suicide be a competent adult, diagnosed by two doctors as not mentally depressed. It also recommends - but does not require family members be notified.
A lawyer for Compassion and Choices, an advocacy group for doctor-assisted suicide, said in an e-mail that McCarter’s ruling only allows legislative restrictions “as long as any such regulation is narrowly drawn.”
And as with all other medical murder, I'm sure they will have a list of doctors who are willing to sign off on anything.
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Since when is Ehlers-Danlos a terminal illness? Ehlers-Danlos is genetic. He has had it all his life. There are many variations of Ehlers-Danlos, but I don't think any of them are terminal.
May God give MT Right To Life wisdom and discernment. God save my home state from this horrible move to yet again play God. STOP the move for legal assisted suicide, in Jesns Name.
THAT is an interesting note!! WOW!
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