Compassion & Choices of Oregon today praised members of the House Health Care Committee who stopped Oregon House Bill 2016 from advancing.
The measure aimed to overturn a crucial provision of the voter-passed Death with Dignity Act. Currently the law allows patients with a terminal illness the right to request aid in dying from their physician without an automatic presumption of mental illness and mental incapacity. The sponsors wanted Oregon law to presume all terminally ill patients who request aid in dying are mentally unfit.
READ – Read Oregon House Bill 2016
“House Bill 2016 was designed to burden patients and physicians with needless procedures and bureaucratic paperwork. The committee leadership was right to reject it,” said Jason Renaud, Executive Director of Compassion & Choices of Oregon. “The sponsors sought to erect barriers to access the Death with Dignity Act. The inability of the sponsors to get even a courtesy hearing for their bill testifies to the overwhelming support for Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act.”
House Bill 2016 was assigned to the House Health Care Committee. To advance a bill, the responsible committee must conduct a work session. The Health Care Committee took no action before the April 8th deadline to schedule a hearing. The Death with Dignity Act passed in 1997 with over 60% of the vote.
