After debate gets heated, assisted-suicide bill is defeated in Hawaii

HONOLULU, Hawaii, March 27, 2017 — The Hawaii state House of Representatives effectively killed a proposed “Medical Aid in Dying Act” last week.

The Hawaii State Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health recommended passage of SB-1129, but after heated debate the state's House Health Committee "deferred" it for changes and amendments.

Patterned after Oregon’s assisted-suicide law, the Medical Aid in Dying Act would transform killing a patient into a legal medical treatment for terminal illness.

SB-1129 expands its prototype Oregon law in many ways, including allowing certain nurses, not just licensed physicians, to both diagnose a patient's terminal illness and to prescribe the lethal drugs to kill him or her.

Read more: http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/19405/Hawaii-Suicide-Bill-Would-Have-Let-Nurses-Diagnose-Fatal-Illness-and-Prescribe-Death-Pills.aspx