Medical aid in dying bill discussed at legislature, powerful testimony presented in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The Nevada Legislature considered a bill Wednesday that would allow doctors to prescribe a pill to help a terminally ill person end their own life.
Assembly Bill 346, sponsored by Democratic Assem. Joe Dalia and Republican Assem. Danielle Gallant would make it legal for a terminally ill patient to request medication to end their own life under certain circumstances.
This follows a similar bill passed through the legislature in 2023 that Republican Governor Joe Lombardo later vetoed.
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.
'I believe the time is now for us to fix this,' Assemblymember Dalia said in his proposal. 'And to allow terminally ill patients to choose their own ending.'
Many for and against the proposal provided testimony in Carson City and Las Vegas.
'This legislation empowers terminally ill people to preserve their dignity and autonomy,' Tia Smith, attorney for ACLU Nevada, said.
Those behind it believe it gives people who are dying the power to choose and stops suffering.
Death doula Melissa Chanselle-Hary shared her experience, speaking to lawmakers in Carson City.
'For those in favor,' Chanselle-Hary said. 'It is because they have lived through or are currently living through an excruciating experience.'
Those against the legislation said it could go against a doctor's Hippocratic oath to administer this kind of medication. Many said they also worry someone could opt for it before their health ultimately improves.
Christiane Mersch explained her stance to 8 News Now after Wednesday's hearing.
'It's not going to be the solution for our patients,' Mersch said. 'What we do need is more support for hospice, medical care.'
There were passionate pleas from both sides in this latest motion for change.
Medical aid in dying is currently legal in ten states and the District of Columbia.
To view the entire committee discussion, click HERE.
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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.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
Scientific American
37 minutes ago
- Scientific American
Planned NIH Cuts Threaten Americans' Health, Senators Charge in Tense Hearing
U.S. senators grilled National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Jayanta Bhattacharya at a hearing on 10 June about how his professed support for science squares with unprecedented funding delays and research-grant terminations at the agency this year, as well as enormous cuts that have been proposed for its 2026 budget. What would normally be a routine hearing about government spending was anything but: hundreds of scientists and advocates for Alzheimer's disease research packed into a cramped room on Capitol Hill to denounce US President Donald Trump's 2026 budget request, which calls for cutting the NIH's budget by about 40% and collapsing its 27 institutes and centres into 8. Such a cut 'would stop critical Alzheimer's research in its tracks,' Tonya Maurer, an advocate for the Alzheimer's Association, a non-profit group based in Chicago, Illinois, told Nature at the hearing. 'We've worked too damn hard to see this happen.' On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Bhattacharya defended his leadership at the agency — the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world — noting that there is a 'need for reform at the NIH' and that to restore its reputation, the NIH 'cannot return to business as usual.' (The NIH has been accused by Trump and his Republican allies of funding 'woke' science and research on coronaviruses that they say could have sparked the COVID-19 pandemic.) To help fix the agency, Bhattacharya told the senators that he wants to focus on increasing reproducibility in biomedical research, upholding academic freedom and studying the cause of autism, which US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has pledged to find an answer to by September. Letters of dissent The hearing comes the day after more than 300 NIH staff members sent Bhattacharya a fiery letter decrying the mass termination of jobs at the agency and its cancellation of thousands of research projects on a growing list of topics that the Trump team has said are 'politicized', including those investigating the biology of COVID-19, the health of sexual and gender minorities (LGBT+) and reasons that people might be hesitant to receive a vaccine. 'We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety and faithful stewardship of public resources,' the staff members wrote. They named their letter the 'Bethesda Declaration,' after the Maryland community and Washington DC suburb where most of the NIH is located. The title also alludes to the 'Great Barrington Declaration', an open letter that Bhattacharya co-signed in October 2020 that argued against COVID-19 lockdowns except for the most vulnerable citizens, instead allowing for children and others to be infected so that 'herd immunity' could be reached ― a proposal that numerous scientists and NIH officials called dangerous at the time. At the hearing, Patty Murray, a Democratic senator from Washington, implored Bhattacharya to 'heed their warning,' and said that she expects that 'none of them face retaliation for raising those concerns.' Bhattacharya didn't respond to this comment at the hearing but said in a statement on 9 June that the Bethesda Declaration 'has some fundamental misconceptions about the policy directions the NIH has taken in recent months,' but that 'respectful dissent in science is productive.' Gavin Yamey, a global-health researcher at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who signed the latest declaration, said, 'he can talk about freedom, but his own staff are decrying his censorship. How he's actually acting and what he says are not one in the same.' Taking ownership Several senators, including Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, questioned who was in charge at the NIH, given reports that billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency ordered agency employees to cut hundreds of specific grants. 'The changes in priorities, the move away from politicized science, I've made those decisions,' Bhattacharya responded. The mass terminations of awards at institutions such as Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 'that's joint with the administration', he said. (The Trump administration has alleged that universities such as Harvard have allowed discrimination, including antisemitism, on their campuses, and has cut or frozen research funding as a result.) The drastic 40% cut to the NIH's budget proposed for the fiscal year 2026 is not yet set in stone: the US Congress has the ultimate say over government spending, and during Trump's first presidency, when he proposed a huge cut to the biomedical agency in 2017, it instead approved a slight increase. Nevertheless, the composition of the body has changed significantly since then — far more of its members are now loyal to Trump. Comments made at the hearing by the senators weren't entirely divided down party lines. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who voted to confirm both Bhattacharya and RFK Jr, said she was disturbed by the budget proposal. 'It would undo years of congressional investment in the NIH,' she said.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
New state laws aim to clarify abortion bans. Doctors say it's not so simple.
Almost three years after the fall of Roe v. Wade made way for near-total abortion bans, state lawmakers are weighing whether to offer more specific guidance about when doctors can perform abortions in a medical crisis. Texas, Kentucky and Tennessee all passed laws this year ostensibly clarifying the scope of its abortion bans, a reaction to climbing sepsis rates and harrowing stories of patients who have suffered or died preventable deaths. Since June 2022, lawmakers in at least nine states have introduced such bills. But doctors, attorneys and policy experts say that the laws being enacted will not solve the problems health providers have been forced to navigate since the end of Roe: The risk of being punished has deterred physicians, hospitals and health systems from providing consistent care, even when it is needed. 'The problem with these clarifying laws is they don't expand access under the law, they don't change the definitions, and they don't remove the legislative interference in the practice of medicine,' said Molly Meegan, chief legal officer and general counsel to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. In Texas, a bill that awaits Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's signature ostensibly clarifies when the state's near-total abortion ban allows for the procedure, saying explicitly that physicians do not need to wait until a patient is in imminent danger of dying to perform an abortion. The bill also requires training for doctors and lawyers on the state's abortion law. But lawmakers have made clear that the bill, crafted in consultation with Texas-based health professionals and abortion opponents, does not introduce new exceptions; Texas' ban does not allow for abortions in cases of rape, incest or fatal fetal anomaly. And if enacted, it would codify a Texas Supreme Court decision that found that the state's ban still applied even in cases with complications that could threaten a pregnant person's health.. Such was the case for Dallas woman Kate Cox, who experienced amniotic fluid leaking and cramping — which create the risk of bacterial infection — after discovering a likely-fatal fetal anomaly in her pregnancy. Some former abortion patients whose lives were endangered because of delayed or denied care, including several who challenged the Texas abortion ban, said they fear Senate Bill 31 may not address situations like theirs. Amanda Zurawski, who sued the state after being denied an abortion when experiencing a life-threatening condition called preterm premature rupture of membrane, said at a legislative hearing on the bill that it likely doesn't provide the clarity she would have needed. 'It is unclear whether SB 31 would have prevented my trauma and preserved my fertility had it existed in 2022, and I find that problematic,' Zurawski said. She only received care after she developed sepsis. Clarification bills can have mixed support in legislatures. Local physicians might back tweaks to exemption language if they see it as potentially lifesaving for their patients. Some anti-abortion advocates might also favor changes if the legislation can address certain medical emergencies that they believe fall outside of a state's ban, such as ectopic pregnancies or preterm premature rupture of membranes. But not all anti-abortion advocates or Republican lawmakers within these statehouses support even a small clarification. 'I think in all these cases, lawmakers are being pulled in different directions by these different constituencies,' said Mary Ziegler, an abortion law historian at the University of California, Davis. 'The bills themselves are kind of muddy, because they're trying to be different things to different people.' The end result are clarification laws that remain unclear to physicians and their employing hospitals and health systems, who can still face high penalties for violating an abortion ban. 'When the law isn't clear, physicians don't intervene,' Ziegler said. 'You're not going to be willing to gamble your liberty and your medical license on an uncertain interpretation of the law.' In Kentucky, doctors vocally opposed a Republican-backed bill that supporters said would help health professionals understand when they can provide abortions. Like in Texas, the state's ban only allows abortion when it is necessary to save a pregnant person's life. The clarification bill listed specific conditions that would qualify for an exception to the ban — such as sepsis, hemorrhage or ectopic pregnancy — despite concern from doctors that a delineated list wouldn't be able to predict every possible situation where an abortion might save someone's life. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed the bill in March, calling gaps in the law 'literally a matter of life and death.' The state's legislature, where the GOP holds a supermajority, voted days later to override him. 'It's hard to create this laundry list of, 'This is OK, this is not OK,' because unfortunately, medicine is something with a bunch of gray areas,' said Dr. Caitlin Thomas, an OB-GYN in Louisville. In Georgia — where pregnant, brain-dead woman Adriana Smith remains on life-support until she can give birth later this summer, and where the death of Amber Thurman was attributed to the confusion created by the state's abortion ban — some lawmakers have asked physicians whether a clarification might allow doctors to provide abortions when the pregnancy threatens a patient's life, possibly by listing specific conditions that qualify for an exception. 'We encouraged them not to, and said that would not be helpful,' said Dr. Neesha Verma, an Atlanta-based OB-GYN. 'The more and more prescriptive you make these laws, the less space there is for clinical judgment.' Following a case filed by seven Tennessee patients who had been denied abortions under the state's ban, lawmakers in that state passed a law this year meant to clarify that, under the state's ban, abortions could be performed in cases of preterm prelabor rupture of membrane or severe preeclampsia, but that the exception did not include mental health emergencies. Mental health conditions including substance use disorder, depression and confirmed or probably suicide are the largest single cause of pregnancy-related deaths in the state, according to a 2022 report. The interest in clarifying bans — including from some lawmakers who oppose abortion — 'is a response to where we know the public is and the fact that we know the public is generally supportive of abortion access and also has been presented with these terrible preventable cases since Dobbs,' said Kimya Forouzan, who tracks state policy for the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit abortion research organization. That ambiguity was on display in a Texas case last year. A state judge held that the state's abortion law exception permitted Cox to have an abortion when her doctors discovered the anomaly in her pregnancy. But the state's attorney general, Ken Paxton, swiftly intervened, threatening legal action against any health care provider that performed an abortion on Cox. Cox ultimately left the state to terminate her pregnancy. Michele Goodwin, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine and author of 'Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood,' said state officials can do more to ensure health providers know their legal rights. 'It would be credible for states' attorneys generals and the prosecutors who are conservative to immediately issue statements of clarity, saying that they are opposed to these kinds of conditions, that they will not prosecute,' she said. The post New state laws aim to clarify abortion bans. Doctors say it's not so simple. appeared first on The 19th. News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday. Subscribe to our free, daily newsletter.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
House GOP advances Marjorie Taylor Greene's transphobic bill banning gender-affirming care for trans youth
In another attack on transgender youth and their families, House Republicans on Tuesday advanced a bill that would make it a federal crime to provide gender-affirming health care to minors, targeting doctors, parents, and providers with prison time for following medically recognized standards of care. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. The bill, H.R. 3492, known as the 'Protect Children's Innocence Act,' was introduced by far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and backed by more than 40 Republican lawmakers. It passed the House Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote and now heads to the full House of Representatives. If enacted, the bill would criminalize puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries, which are already rare for transgender people under 18, even when supported by families and recommended by their doctors. Related: Trump signs executive order banning federal support of gender-affirming care for anyone under 19 'This is just another attempt by extremist Republican politicians to further their anti-transgender agenda,' said gay California U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. 'It is outrageous that House Judiciary Committee Republicans just voted to advance a bill that would throw parents and doctors in jail for providing medically necessary care to young trans people.' The bill labels gender-affirming medical care as 'genital mutilation' and 'chemical castration,' while excluding gender dysphoria from the definition of legitimate health conditions. Yet the legislation carves out specific exemptions for surgeries on intersex infants, many of which are non-consensual and medically unnecessary — a practice widely condemned by human rights groups. David Stacy, vice president of government affairs at the Human Rights Campaign, said the bill is not about protecting children but about weaponizing transgender people to score political points. Related: Utah Republicans ignore study supporting gender-affirming care for trans youth. It's research they demanded 'Deeply personal health care decisions belong between families and their doctors, not politicians,' Stacy told The Advocate in a statement. 'No one should need Marjorie Taylor Greene's permission to get the best practice, medically necessary care that their family needs. This bill is not about public health—it's about emboldening discrimination and using the transgender community as a weapon to divide the country and try to obscure failings of the Trump administration and their enablers in Congress.' Under the bill's sweeping provisions, even helping a trans teenager cross state lines or access telehealth services for care could result in a decade-long prison sentence. The law would not apply to cisgender youth seeking similar interventions, such as breast reduction, puberty suppression for precocious puberty, or other medically approved procedures. Related: What to expect in this week's landmark gender-affirming care U.S. Supreme Court case The legislation arrives at a volatile moment for transgender rights. In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning gender-affirming care for young people, but federal courts have intervened and put that order on hold. However, as soon as Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling in United States v. Skrmetti, a case challenging Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Advocates warn that a ruling upholding the law could create a legal precedent for sweeping national restrictions on trans health care, effectively turning cases like Greene's bill from political stunts into enforceable federal doctrine. Legal scholars and public health experts have warned that such a ruling would be devastating. Writing in The Advocate, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health professor Harry Barbee called U.S. v. Skrmetti a 'public health disaster' that could codify discrimination and strip life-saving care from some of the country's most vulnerable youth. Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other institutions shows that gender-affirming care significantly reduces rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide among trans adolescents. Related: Doctors warn of 'terrifying' effects as Trump creates snitch line to report gender-affirming care patients Medical organizations representing over 1.3 million doctors, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the Endocrine Society, continue to endorse gender-affirming care as evidence-based and medically necessary. They have denounced efforts like Greene's bill as politically motivated and dangerous.
