Delaware House committee clears bill allowing terminally ill people end their own lives

Delaware lawmakers made the first step on Wednesday to approve a bill that would let terminally ill patients end their own lives.

Nine members of a 15-person House committee approved the legislation by Rep. Paul Baumbach to go to a floor vote.

Proponents say the bill, which lets a terminally ill person request and self-administer a medication to die, would give the option to a small percentage of the population suffering unbearably at the end of their life. Some opponents worry that the bill could disproportionately affect people with disabilities or those with little access to health care, who could be coerced by their caretakers into dying.

The 12-page bill has several safeguards in an attempt to ensure only a small, specific population of terminally ill people have access to the life-ending medication that it sanctions.

Read more: https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/20/delaware-committee-moves-bill-letting-terminally-ill-end-their-lives/6585564001/