Assisted suicide bill fails again in Arizona legislature

(LifeSiteNews) — A bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Arizona has failed once again, languishing without action in the state legislature before the deadline.

HB 2569, the “Thomas M. Dow Act,” would have allowed terminally-ill patients to request a “medication” to “self-administer to bring about a peaceful death,” subject to review by two physicians, a 15-day waiting period, and the signatures of two witnesses to the request.

The bill was introduced in the state House but received no action after its second reading. The Arizona Republic reports that the bill has now missed the window for the House to advance it to the state Senate. The loss continues a string of defeats for Grand Canyon State euthanasia legalizers dating back to 2003.

“Concerns about coercion and inadequate oversight contributed to the bill’s defeat,” Live Action notes. “Lawmakers raised questions about how eligibility criteria would be enforced and whether vulnerable individuals could be influenced by family members, financial considerations, or systemic health care inequalities.”

In America, physician-assisted suicide is currently legal in 13 states plus the District of Columbia, with legalization measures pending in a dozen more.

As Patients Rights Action Fund (PRAF) executive director Matt Vallière has argued, current euthanasia programs in the United States constitute discrimination against patients with life-threatening conditions in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as when a state will “will pay for every instance of assisted suicide” but not palliative care, “I don’t call that autonomy, I call that eugenics.”

Live Action’s Bridget Sielicki further notes that “because a paralytic is involved, a person can look peaceful, while they actually drown to death in their own bodily secretions. Experimental assisted suicide drugs have led to the ‘burning of patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to scream in pain.’ Furthermore, a study in the medical journal Anaesthesia found that a third of patients took up to 30 hours to die after ingesting assisted suicide drugs, while four percent took seven days to die.”

Support is available to talk to those struggling with thoughts of ending their lives. The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988.