NH End of Life Act to allow medical aid in dying moves closer to passage

CONCORD — The End of Life Options Act, which would allow terminally ill people in New Hampshire to choose to receive medical aid in dying, gained its first victory in the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Both Republicans and Democrats voted in favor of House Bill 1283, sending it to the full House of Representatives with a recommendation to pass, 13-7.

An amendment to the bill also passed with a vote of 14-6. It eliminated physician assistants from having any role in the medical aid in dying process. It also clarified the role of pharmacists as just producing and delivering the prescription, not prescribing the medication or deciding if a patient is qualified.

“The one thing every one of us experiences is death. Not one of us will be able to escape death, unless you know something I don’t know and please do tell me,” said bill sponsor Rep. Marjorie Smith, D-Durham in her introduction of the bill and amendment. “What we are looking at here is how to make sure that the citizens of New Hampshire, relatively few but still citizens of New Hampshire, have an opportunity to have one more choice in how their life ends.”

Smith addressed the concerns of disability right advocates who have said that medical aid in dying would put disabled people in danger, sharing a letter from the Oregon Disability Council that described correspondence from the disability community in Oregon who wanted to the option.

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Several representatives voiced their disagreement with the bill. Rep. Joe Alexander, R-Goffstown, asked how anyone would know the drug was self-administered and not forced. Rep. Jeffrey Greeson, R-Wentworth, said the bill could lead to “post-birth abortion, for lack of a better term,” for difficult children.

Rep. Walter Stapleton, R-Claremont, also expressed his belief the limits of this bill could start to expand.

“If it's six months maybe it goes to seven, maybe terminal illness expands into other areas of infirmity or weakness or depression or dementia or Alzheimer’s or any number of things,” said Stapleton. “Under moral beliefs and faith beliefs this is tampering with God’s providence in the protection of life and the sanctity of life and the gift that’s given us and ignoring the hope that we have in hospice and palliative car.”

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Rep. Cam Kenney, D-Durham, said those comments were “not based in facts.”

“It’s a bill of compassion, not cruelty, and it’s a dignified way out,” Kenney said.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Rep. Timothy Horrigan, D-Durham. “It’s not taking us off of a precipice and even if there is a slippery slope we’re not required to go down that slippery slope.”

Versions of this bill have been brought to the legislature in past years, but this is the first time a House committee has voted in favor. The date for the House of Representatives vote has not been set.

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This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: NH End of Life Act to allow medical aid in dying advances to vote