Today, almost a quarter of the U.S. population lives in a state that has legalized physician-assisted suicide. Other states, including Massachusetts and New York, are considering legalization this year.
The Maryland legislation would have allowed individuals with a terminal illness — i.e., with a prognosis of six months survival or less — to request assisted suicide from a physician.
The process for requesting Maryland’s “aid in dying” would have started with a patient making an oral request to a physician, and then submitting to the physician a written request. The individual would then make another oral request to the physician at least 15 days after the first oral request and 48 hours after the written request.
The written requests would have been required to be signed by two other witnesses attesting that the patient is of sound mind and not being coerced into killing themselves. The physician then would have been allowed to prescribe lethal drugs to the patient, who would take the drugs themselves.
Only the patient themselves would have been allowed to request the assisted suicide, and at least one of the oral requests would have been required to have been done while the patient was alone with the physician. Physicians would have been shielded from criminal and civil prosecution, and would have been allowed to refuse to participate in the process.
The Catholic bishops of Maryland registered their opposition to the bill, penning an open letter denouncing state legislators’ decision to consider the bill and calling for “a better path forward.”
The letter said that in every state where assisted suicide has been legalized, “grave abuses and expansion have occurred,” which makes the lethal practice “available to far more people and not just those facing imminent death.”
“There is a better path forward for the people of Maryland, and it does not involve suicide,” the letter said.
“We urge all people of goodwill to demand that our lawmakers reject suicide as an end-of-life option and to choose the better, safer path that involves radical solidarity with those facing the end of their earthly journey,” the letter said.
Dr. Joseph Marine, a Johns Hopkins professor of medicine who testified before the Maryland House this year in opposition to the measure, told CNA in a statement that he was “glad that the Maryland General Assembly is not moving forward with this dangerous and flawed bill, as it demonstrates they took seriously the concerns of medical professionals in the state like myself, as well as a broad coalition of Marylanders, including diverse minority and disability communities.”
“As a doctor, I always try to help people and alleviate suffering. Making high-quality, ethically-grounded palliative, pain-management, and hospice care more accessible to Marylanders is what legislators should focus on, not giving doctors a license to take life with a prescription of poison,” Marine said.
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