Suicide, experimental medicine and fetal personhood

Bills dealing with suicide prevention, assisted suicide, experimental medicine, fetal personhood and religious freedom came before the Montana Legislature recently.

• A bill that urges school employees to complete suicide awareness and prevention training passed the House by 75-25 on Feb. 21 and the Senate by 32-18 on April 1.

House Bill 374, sponsored by Rep. Edith McClafferty, D-Butte, is now headed to Gov. Steve Bullock’s desk for his signature. The bill recommends that public school employees take two hours of the training every five years.

Montana has the highest suicide rate in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. HB 374 won’t cost the state anything because it will use research-based training that has already been developed, according to the bills’ fiscal note.

• A bill that would have made it illegal for doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients was tabled in the Senate Judiciary Committee by 7-5 on March 31 after passing in the House by 51-48 on March 16.

Under House Bill 477, sponsored by Rep. Gerald Bennett, R-Libby, doctors faced up to 10 years and a $60,000 fine if convicted of assisting suicide.

The legislature has looked at similar bills addressing assisted suicide for terminally ill patients ever since the Montana Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that nothing in Montana law prohibits a physician from providing aid in dying. The high court ruled that a doctor could use a patient’s request for medication as a defense against any criminal charge.

• Gov. Bullock signed a bill on March 27 that would allow terminally ill patients the right to try experimental medical treatments.

Senate Bill 142, sponsored by Sen. Cary Smith, R-Billings, was overwhelmingly passed by the legislature, with the House approving the bill by 93-7 on March 10 and the Senate by 50-0 on March 16.

The  “Right to Try” bill allows terminally ill patients who have exhausted all federally-approved medical treatments to seek experimental drugs, biological products or devices that have successfully completed a Phase 1 clinical trial but have not yet bee approved for general use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

• A proposed Montana Constitutional amendment that would define human life as beginning at conception passed the House by 51-58 on March 28 and was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

House Bill 425, sponsored by Rep. Matthew Monforton, R-Bozeman, needs a two-thirds vote by the legislature because it amends the state constitution. If it received that vote, it could be placed on the 2016 ballot for voter approval.

Opponents said HB 425 could restrict access to abortion even before viability.  Supporters said the bill would help prevent abortion rather than just regulating it. This is the third time such a bill has gone before the legislature, and Monforton conceded he thought it would have a tough time getting through.

• A bill that would give people grounds to disobey Montana laws that violated their religious beliefs failed to pass the House after deadlocking with a 50-50 tie on a second reading on March 27.

House Bill 615, sponsored by Rep. Carl Glimm, R-Kila, would revise the Montana Constitution as the “Montana Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” As a legislative referendum, HB 615 would have been submitted to the voters for approval in the 2016 general election.

A similar bill recently was signed into law in Indiana, another similar bill recently was passed by the Arkansas Legislature but the governor refused to sign it, and another similar bill was recently introduced to the Nevada Legislature. Opponents to the bill in Indiana said it would allow businesses to discriminate against gay and lesbian people.

Opponents to HB 615 said the bill’s language was so vague it would allow any business, church or individuals to openly discriminate and violate laws.

Glimm and supporters said the bill would protect county clerks who didn’t want to provide marriage licenses to gay couples and pharmacists who didn’t want to provide birth control prescriptions.