‘Euthanasia pill' proposed as Nevada law after Gov. Lombardo's veto in 2023
A patient who has been diagnosed with a terminal condition would be allowed to request medication to end their own life under certain conditions:
Patient must be at least 18 years old.
Patient has been diagnosed with a terminal condition by at least two practitioners.
Patient has made an informed and voluntary decision to end his or her own life.
Patient is mentally capable of making such a decision.
Patient is not requesting the medication because of coercion, deception or undue influence.
The proposal passed by a narrow margin in 2023, before it was eventually vetoed. Now, a Republican who voted against the bill is sponsoring the new version, Assembly Bill 346 (AB346). Republican Assem. Danielle Gallant and Democratic Assem. Joe Dalia are the bill's sponsors, along with co-sponsor Democratic Assem. Edgar Flores. All three of the sponsors represent areas in Southern Nevada.
The bill was referred to the Assembly Select Committee on End of Life Care today in Carson City. It has not been scheduled for a hearing yet.
Doctors and others involved in the patient's care are protected from prosecution or professional discipline under language of AB346, and given the right to refuse to prescribe the medication. But if they refuse, they are required to facilitate the transfer of the patent to another health care provider.
Medical professionals would dispense the euthanasia pill, but only the patient would be allowed to administer it.
Other sections of the law are written to ensure the death certificate states that the patient died of their terminal condition. 'A death resulting from the self-administration of a medication that is designed to end the life of a patient is not mercy killing, euthanasia, assisted suicide, suicide or homicide when done in accordance with the provisions of this bill.' It further prohibits insurance companies from refusing to honor insurance benefits based on the use of a euthanasia pill.
AB346 also states that the pill cannot be prescribed solely based on the patient's age or a disability.
Two years ago, Gov. Lombardo said in his veto message for the bill (Senate Bill 239 during the 2023 session):
'SB239 allows for physician assisted suicide in the State of Nevada. End of life decisions are never easy. Individuals and family members must often come together to face many challenges — including deciding what is the best course of medical treatment for a loved one. Fortunately, expansions in palliative care services and continued improvement in advanced pain management make the end-of-life provisions in SB239 unnecessary.'Given recent progress in science and medicine and the fact that only a small number of states and jurisdictions allow for similar end-of-life protocols, I am not comfortable supporting this bill.'
Before Lombardo's veto, that bill barely made it out of a Senate committee on a 3-2 vote, passed narrowly in the full Senate on an 11-10 vote, and passed the full Assembly 23-9.
A national group, Compassion & Choices, said in 2023 that Lombardo was the first governor to veto a medical-aid-in-dying bill.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
a minute ago
- New York Post
Zohran Mamdani blasts Cuomo plan to block privileged from rent-stabilized pad, but gives no sign he's ready to give up his own
Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani on Monday blasted the 'petty vindictiveness' of rival Andrew Cuomo's proposed 'Zohran's Law' that would target privileged New Yorkers who live in rent-stabilized homes — but gave no sign he'll move out. Mamdani, 33, who lives in a $2,300-a-month rent-stabilized Astoria apartment while pulling $142,000 a year as state assemblyman, condemned Cuomo's proposal as dangerously detail-free. 'What do we know about this policy proposal beyond the fact that it seeks to evict me from my apartment?' the Queens lawmaker said. 'Like so much of Andrew Cuomo's politics, it is characterized by a petty vindictiveness… How many New Yorkers would have their lives upended by a former governor who is responding to the fact that he was handily beaten by a tenant of a rent-stabilized apartment?' Cuomo, the former governor, saw his dreams of a convincing political comeback dashed in the Democratic mayoral contest when the socialist Mamdani utterly trounced him, securing more primary votes than any Big Apple Dem in three decades. 3 Zohran Mamdani blasted mayoral election rival Andrew Cuomo's rent-stabilization proposal as the height of 'petty vindictiveness.' Matthew McDermott 3 Mamdani, who makes $142,000-a-year as a state lawmaker, pays $2,500 a month for his Astoria apartment — and Cuomo wants him to move out. Brigitte Stelzer The defeat didn't stop Cuomo from launching an independent mayoral run, with an emphasis on aggressively attacking Mamdani and making cringe-inducing posts on social media. The ex-gov concocted 'Zohran's Law' as Mamdani — the son of well-known filmmaker and a professor — faced criticism for not giving up his rent-stabilized apartment in what critics said was a hypocritical stance that clashed with his pro-affordable housing campaign message. 'We're not supposed to be providing rent-stabilized apartments to the children of millionaires,' Cuomo said Sunday. 'Somewhere last night in New York City, a single mother and her children slept at a homeless shelter because you, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, are occupying her rent-controlled apartment,' he twisted the knife in a viral tweet. 'I am calling on you to move out immediately and give your affordable housing back to an unhoused family who need it.' 3 Cuomo has been trying to hit Mamdani on social media. Matthew McDermott Rent-stabilized homes account for 1 million units — or half of all apartments — in New York City. Rent control, which Cuomo inaccurately said applies to Mamdani's apartment, is for tenants who've lived continuously in their homes since 1971. Cuomo's actual proposal wouldn't evict high-income New Yorkers from rent-stabilized apartments but would only apply once a rent-stabilized apartment becomes vacant. The incoming renter's income would be capped so that the annual rent makes up at least 30% of that income, meaning a $2,500-a-year apartment can only have tenants who make less than $100,000. Mamdani's spokeswoman Dora Pekac blasted Cuomo's supposed hypocrisy. 'Andrew Cuomo—the disgraced former governor who casually handed a billion-dollar tax break to Elon Musk—wants working New Yorkers to prove how much they are struggling before he approves their lease,' she said. 'While Cuomo cares only for the well-being of his Republican donors, Zohran believes city government's job is to guarantee a life of dignity, not determine who is worth one.' Mamdani repeated his skepticism over such 'means testing' as an approach, noting the MTA's 'Fair Fares' program only serves about 40% of eligible low-income New Yorkers. He said a free bus pilot program that he championed didn't make more millionaires and billionaires ride the bus, but rather helped increase ridership by New Yorkers who already qualified for Fair Fares. Beyond that, Mamdani argued that Cuomo's decisions as governor — particularly slashing $65 million in rental assistance programs — helped lead to a surge in Big Apple homelessness. 'What Andrew Cuomo is proposing, be it the rent control he cited, the rent stabilization he intends to speak about, is in many ways reflective of the fact that I live rent-free in his head,' Mamdani said, giving no indication he planned to leave his home. 'He's not looking to reflect on the fact that he eliminated more affordable housing than he created. He's not looking to reckon with his cutting of a voucher program that was then followed by a significant increase in homelessness in New York City. He's not looking to reckon with any of that.' Mayor Eric Adams, who is also running as an independent, used the spat to attack both of his challengers. 'Rent-stabilized, low-income apartments should be just for that low-income people,' the mayor said. 'I keep telling people how we have to fix Cuomo's mess. He created this in 2019 when he took away the standards of who could stay in these apartments. This is one of his problems. He's complaining about who is in these apartments being high-income earners, but he created this.' Additional reporting by Carl Campanile and Craig McCarthy
The Hill
a minute ago
- The Hill
Nadler campaigns with Mamdani: ‘Trump is no friend to our city, and neither is Andrew Cuomo'
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) campaigned with New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday, slamming both President Trump and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. 'New York has always stood up to bullies and defended what's right, even when it's difficult, which is why we were so shocked to learn that Andrew Cuomo called Donald Trump for advice after the Democratic primary,' Nadler said at a press conference alongside Mamdani. 'This betrayal shows exactly what we're up against: politicians willing to legitimize our city's greatest threat for their personal benefit. The truth is, Cuomo and Trump are very similar. ' 'Both use their power to serve themselves and their wealthy donors, not the people. If it weren't clear before, it should be now. Donald Trump is no friend to our city, and neither is Andrew Cuomo. This is why the choice for New York City's next mayor is so critical,' he added. Mamdani recently heavily criticized reported moves by Trump regarding the New York City mayoral race. 'Today we learned Andrew Cuomo is directly coordinating with Donald Trump, even as this President sends masked agents to rip our neighbors off the streets and guts the social services so many New Yorkers rely on,' Mamdani said in a Wednesday post on the social platform X. 'It's disqualifying and a betrayal of our city,' he added. The New York Times reported last week that eight sources said the president talked in private about stepping into the race in an attempt to stop Mamdani from winning the November election. According to the Times, a Republican congressman and New York businessmen have been recently pressed by the president about which of Mamdani's rivals they believe could win against the Democratic nominee. Trump and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, also a candidate for New York City mayor, discussed the race in a phone call within the last few weeks, the Times also reported. During a press conference last week, Cuomo said he couldn't 'remember the last time I spoke to President Trump,' also adding that he has 'never spoken to him about the mayor's race.'
Los Angeles Times
a minute ago
- Los Angeles Times
Of course Trump wants to flex on D.C. Where are the Democrats to stop him?
Remember 'I alone can fix it'? Donald Trump, who made that laughable statement in his 2016 convention acceptance speech, is now testing the theory in Washington. Trump and his party have been threatening a D.C. takeover for years and made it part of the Republican platform last year. But it was all just empty talk and random uppercase words until a former staffer at the Department of Government Efficiency was reportedly attacked in an attempted carjacking in the wee hours of Aug. 3 in a busy area of bars and restaurants. It doesn't matter at all to Trump that D.C.'s violent crime rate fell to a 30-year low last year and is down another 26% so far this year compared with 2024, or that a police report suggests police saw the incident and intervened. This particular victim — a teenage Elon Musk protégé and notorious DOGE operative — gave this particular president the 'emergency' he needed to declare a 'public safety emergency.' Of course, he called it 'a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.' He has federalized the city's Metropolitan Police Department and deployed 800 members of its National Guard (to start). Over the weekend he sent 450 federal police officers from 18 agencies to patrol the city. It's the second time this year that Trump has played the National Guard card to show who's boss. He sent 4,000 Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles in June, over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass, ostensibly to restore order amid immigration raids. But the move sparked new tensions, protests and at least one surreal foray by armed, masked agents into a park where children were attending summer camp. It also drew a legal challenge from Newsom, which is unfolding in court this week. There will be no similar lawsuit in D.C., where I've lived for decades. That's because the U.S. president controls our National Guard. The hard truth is that though Wyoming and Vermont each have fewer people than D.C.'s 700,000-plus residents, D.C. is not a state. It's still in a semi-colonial status, with a mayor and city council whose actions can be nullified by Congress, and with no voting representation in that Congress. In fact, Congress accidentally slashed $1.1 billion from D.C.'s budget — our own money, not federal dollars! — in its cost-cutting frenzy last spring. A promised fix never came, forcing cuts that affect public safety and much else. And yet the city's crime rate has continued to fall. Compared with California, an economic juggernaut of more than 39 million people located thousands of miles from Washington, D.C. is a minuscule and all too convenient target for an executive aiming to prove his manhood, show off to autocrats in other countries or create headlines to distract from news he doesn't like. I could go off on Trump for his lies, overreach and disrespect for D.C. and its right to govern itself. Or the various Republicans who have imposed conservative policies on D.C. for years and now are trying to repeal its home rule law. But what really enrages me is the lack of Democratic nerve — or even bravado — that has left D.C. so vulnerable to Trump and conservative-run Congresses. Where was the modern-day Lyndon Johnson (the 'master of the Senate,' in Robert Caro's phrase) in 2021, to whip support in the narrowly Democratic Senate after the House passed a D.C. statehood bill for the second year in a row? Trump has no mastery beyond bullying and bribery — but those tactics are working fine with Congress, corporations, law firms, academia and sovereign nations across the globe. As former House Speaker Newt Gingrich put it last week: 'You have this rock standing in the middle of history called Donald Trump. And he's saying: 'Do you want to do it my way, or do you want to be crushed? I prefer you do it my way, but if you have to be crushed, that's OK.' ' Gingrich correctly characterized most responses to Trump as 'You know, I've always wanted to be part of the team,' and added: 'If he can sustain this, he's moving into a league that, other than Washington and Lincoln, nobody has gotten to the level of energy, drive and effectiveness that we see with Trump.' Unfortunately, Trump is aiming to speed-raze what Washington and Lincoln built. (He keeps claiming it's 'Liberation Day' for D.C., but the last 'Liberation Day' — his April 2 tariff announcements — tanked the stock market.) The only conceivable antidote is to elect a mad-as-hell Democratic Congress in 2026 and, in 2028, an arm-twisting, strong-arming, terror-inspiring Democratic president who's in a hurry to get things done. Someone who's forceful, persuasive and resolved to use the power they have while they have it. The top priorities, beyond reversing as much institutional and constitutional damage as possible, should be structural: Supreme Court term limits and ethics rules with teeth, a national gerrymandering ban, a sensible and uniform national voter ID policy, and minimum national standards for early voting and mail voting — to protect the will of the people and the republic itself. Equally important, make D.C. the state of Douglass Commonwealth, named after the abolitionist Frederick Douglass rather than the colonizing Christopher Columbus. Rural America has wielded disproportionate power since the late 1800s, when Republicans added sparsely populated states and permanently skewed the Senate. Two new D.C. senators would help correct that imbalance. The problem is that the next president, or even the next Congress, might arrive too late for D.C. Trump has already begun the federal takeover he has threatened so often for so many years. He took over the Kennedy Center. He took over Congress. We should have expected we'd be next. Back in March, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) proposed that D.C. seek temporary sanctuary with Maryland, which ceded most of the land to create the capital in the first place. 'You'd definitely be safer,' he said he told Mayor Muriel Bowser. That offer, joke or not, practical or not, is looking increasingly inviting by the day. Jill Lawrence is a writer and author of 'The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock.' @
