The Maryland legislature is once again taking up the issue of legalizing medical aid in dying.
Members of the House of Delegates Health and Government Operations and Judiciary Committees held an hours-long joint hearing on the issue on Monday.
The bill largely reflects the one that comes up annually in the legislature which allows terminally ill patients to take their own lives under medically prescribed medication.
The bill has a handful of safeguards, patients must only have a prognosis of six months to live, they must repeatedly ask a doctor for the medications and go through a waiting period and they must have their mental health evaluated.
“I believe that this bill brings compassion and autonomy to those facing imminent death,” said Del. Terri Hill (D-Baltimore and Howard Counties).
Hill said witnesses have asked over and over for an opportunity to “choose how they go out in a dignified fashion with a sense of surety that they could do it with family around in a way that was suitable to them.”
The issue has wide support across Maryland, with about 70% of Marylanders in favor of medical aid in dying.
However, despite that support, it has not made it to the governor’s desk, despite years of trying.
Opponents of the bill fear people may be coerced into taking their life. Others feel that the issue is immoral.
“A vote to legalize physician assisted suicide is a vote to make involuntary euthanasia an acceptable medical practice. The difference between these two forms of killing is simply time,” said Laura Bogley, the executive director of Maryland Right to Life.
In 2019, Maryland nearly passed a medical aid in dying bill. The Senate vote ended in a 23-23 tie.
Many thought the bill would pass in 2024.
“I believe it will pass the Senate,” Senate President Bill Ferguson said in January 2024, at the beginning of the session. “I expect it to be a topic of important conversation this year.”
Yet, months later, the bill did not make it to the Senate floor because it did not have the votes in committee.
Now, proponents of the bill are trying again, in hopes the slim margins may work in their favor.
