The Connecticut Joint Judiciary Committee did not call a vote on the state’s assisted suicide bill (SB 1076) yesterday, killing the bill! Recent examples of NDY blogs reporting on efforts there include:
· Op Ed: Lisa Blumberg: Can Conn. Live With Aid in Dying Being Law?
· Cathy Ludlum: Nietzsche and Assisted Suicide in Connecticut
· Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide Holds Press Conference; Members Testify at Public Hearing
Second Thoughts CT member Stephen Mendelsohn said, “It is clear that C&C’s and DWDNC’s actions in pushing for expansion in states where assisted suicide is already legal have hurt them in Connecticut (and likely other states where they are actively campaigning to make it legal).” According to CT News Junkie:
There were concerns about the proposal on both sides of the aisle.
Rep. Steve Stafstrom, a Bridgeport Democrat who co-chairs the committee, spoke of his own father’s terminal cancer diagnosis and the difficult decisions it has brought. He pushed back on characterizations that opposition to the bill stemmed largely from the religious affiliation of legislators.
Instead, Stafstrom said his concerns about the proposal grew throughout this session due to court battles in other states, where lawsuits have sought to scrap safeguards similar to those contemplated under the bill.
“There are still some outstanding issues and we are right to be cautious on it,” Stafstrom said.
During a meeting last session, opponents of the proposal employed a legislative tactic to split the joint committee along House and Senate lines. The panel’s senators then took a 5-4 vote to defeat the bill. Stafstrom said some members had been unfairly maligned as a result of that apparently close vote.
“I will say, we have vote counted this in the caucuses. It’s not one or two people,” he said. “There was unfairly, last year, some blame placed on maybe one or two members — how they voted on this bill — that that would have changed the outcome on this committee. It wouldn’t.”
The hearing held yesterday is available at https://ct-n.com/ctnplayer.asp?odID=21709 and Representative Stafstrom is at 1:18:40.
The Hartford Courant also included in its coverage of the bill’s demise a photo of advocates from Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide (PAMAS) and a letter to the editor from Lisa Blumberg. See below for both.
Lisa Blumberg’s Letter :
To the Editor:
As a liberal Democrat and a disability rights feminist, I would like to assure Representative Gilchrest that there are plenty of people who are pro-choice and who oppose legalizing assisted suicide [April 4, Opinion, Page 7 “Connecticut’s Protection of Bodily Autonomy and Aid in Dying”]. With the healthcare system so broken and so many people struggling to get the care and practical support they need to live their lives the way they want despite difficulties, it is absurd to suggest that allowing doctors to prescribe death causing drugs to a certain patient subclass would do anything to promote autonomy. It would merely enable an indifferent society to take the easy way out. What’s pro-choice about that?