The bill that would allow terminally ill patients to end their own lives with a doctor’s prescription brought more than 200 people to testify before the Judiciary Committee Wednesday, with spectators spilling into two overflow rooms at the Legislative Office Building.
Those in favor of House Bill 7015 wore green “My Life. My Death. My Choice” stickers, while those against wore blue ones, saying “Got Second Thoughts?” There were numerous people in the audience bearing each sticker as a sign of their view on aid in dying or, as opponents call it, assisted suicide.
The bill would allow terminally ill patients, with less than six months to live, to ask their attending physicians twice, at least 15 days apart, for medication that would end their lives.
The beginning of the hearing featured more opponents than supporters of the bill, partly because several people with disabilities, who fear a slippery slope, were called to speak first.
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