Maryland’s latest assisted suicide bill dies in state Senate

Pro-life and disability rights advocates succeeded again in stopping physician assisted-suicide in Maryland. Sometimes referred to by the euphemism of “medical aid-in-dying,” the legislation would have allowed doctors to provide drugs to a person with a “terminal illness” who has fewer than six months to live so they can kill themselves.

“If the votes aren’t there, the votes aren’t there,” Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson said on March 1, as reported by The Baltimore Banner.

“We are not going to be taking a vote on the bill this session, as it does not appear we have the votes to pass it in the Senate,” he said. Ferguson plans to try again to get the bill passed.

The state Senate bill had eight Democratic sponsors and one Republican, state Senator Chris West.

Proponents of assisted suicide, usually Democrats, have had to overcome opposition from a core constituency – black Americans.

Black Protestants are sometimes the most opposed of any group to the legalization of assisted suicide. This is possibly why Maryland legislators have named the bill partially after former Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings. The late black congressman represented Baltimore.

Proponents of people being able to legally kill themselves have tried for at least 30 years to pass the legislation in the state, often facing pushback from religious groups and disability rights advocates. “Currently, 10 states (California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington) and the District of Columbia have laws that allow a doctor to write lethal prescriptions for dying patients to self-administer,” a legislative analysis found.

The bill also died in 2019 when the State Senate voted 23-23, as previously reported by LifeSiteNews. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/marylands-latest-assisted-suicide-bill-dies-in-state-senate/?utm_source=most_recent&utm_campaign=usa