Bill to criminalize aid in dying defeated

A bill which opponents called “The Physician Imprisonment Act” was defeated in the Montana House on Feb. 17.

A bipartisan group of legislators voted 51 to 49 to reject House Bill 328, would have charged a doctor with homicide for writing a prescription for aid-in-dying medication to a terminally ill adult who wants that option to end their suffering. Doctors also would have lost their license to practice medicine under the bill, which would trump a Montana State Supreme Court ruling.

The Montana House Judiciary Committee was scheduled to hold a hearing on Feb. 18 on House Bill 477, which called for imprisoning a doctor for up to 10 years for writing an aid-in-dying prescription.

Compassion & Choices, the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit organization working to improve care and expand choice at the end of life, praised the Montana House for rejecting House Bill 328.

“We thank the House for rejecting this bill that would charge physicians who honor a dying patient’s request for medical aid in dying with homicide and take away their medical license,” Compassion & Choices Montana campaign manager Emily Bentley said. “Now we urge the House not to reverse course on HB 328 on the final reading of the bill and to reject HB 477 that would put doctors who practice aid in dying in prison for up to 10 years.”

According to the advocacy group, a 2013 poll showed 69 percent of Montana voters supported authorizing physicians to write prescriptions for aid-in-dying medication.

In 2009, the Montana Supreme Court ruled in Baxter v. Montana that state law authorizes physicians to prescribe aid-in-dying medication to a terminally ill adult who requests it.

“The Rights of the Terminally Ill Act clearly provides that terminally ill patients are entitled to autonomous end-of-life decisions,” The court said.

The court required four safeguards — a patient must be terminally ill, mentally competent, over 18 years old and must self-administer the medication. Five years later, many doctors across Montana have written aid-in-dying prescriptions for terminally ill people who request it.