After abruptly cancelling a hearing on April 12th in response to mass opposition to SB261, a bill that would legalize physician assisted suicide, a hearing was held on Wednesday May 10th in the Nevada State Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Yesterday the committee voted to pass and recommend SB261 on a party line vote. All Democrats supported SB261 and all Republicans opposed it. Governor Brian Sandoval opposes the policy of assisted suicide.
Doctor assisted suicide is a policy that the American Medical Association says “is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.” That made it both surreal and unconscionable to grant opponents of the bill only 30 minutes to oppose such a dangerous and dramatic change in public policy, to limit witnesses to a mere 2 minutes and, to cut off a dying woman, Stephanie Packer, from speaking.
Keeping bills like SB261 in the dark is a necessary tactic for supporters of doctor assisted suicide because, while bills like SB261 start out with what seems to be broad support, they almost always fail when the public finds out what the bill entails. There have been about 140 attempts to pass assisted suicide measures in states with only five successes. This year, attempts to pass it in Hawaii, and New Mexico failed. Arizona, Louisiana, Georgia, Idaho and Ohio voted to strengthen their anti-assisted suicide statutes. It’s no doubt why the discussion on this bill was so limited. Please help us keep up the pressure and keep spreading the word to make sure that assisted suicide does not become legal in Nevada. Please see the action alert below.
SB261 has a long way to go and its supporters are pulling out all the stops. It must be passed by the Senate, have a committee hearing in the Assembly, pass out of the Assembly committee, be passed by the Assembly and be signed by Governor Sandoval, whose spokesperson says that Governor Sandoval does not support the policy.
We thank the governor for his opposition and are asking him to veto SB261. We ask our supporters to ask him to do the same. Please click here to read Nevada Right to Life and National Right to Life’s statement of thanks to Governor Sandoval for opposing assisted suicide. Please see the action alert below to email governor Sandoval.
ACTION: Please email Governor Sandoval and tell him that you oppose SB261 (physician assisted suicide). Thank him for his public opposition to the policy and ask him to veto SB261. To email the governor, go to https://gov.nv.gov/Contact/Email-the-Governor/ and scroll down the page. Your emails are important to keeping doctor assisted suicide out of Nevada.
If you have not already done, so, please register your opposition to Doctor Assisted Suicide on the legislative website.
