Montana committee hears hours of testimony over bill to bar physician-assisted suicide

Senate Bill 136, a proposal to clarify that physician-assisted suicide is not lawful in Montana, drew more than three hours of testimony and sharp disagreement at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

Supporters told lawmakers the measure is needed to protect vulnerable Montanans and to make clear that a physician who intentionally prescribes a lethal drug to cause death can be prosecuted. Opponents — including hospital staff, hospice and palliative clinicians, people with terminal diagnoses and family members who used medical aid in dying — said the bill would criminalize accepted end-of-life care, strip patients and families of a private option, and likely push some people to choose violent, solitary means.

Senator Glim (bill sponsor) opened the hearing saying state law criminalizes deliberate homicide and aid or soliciting suicide and that the Montana Supreme Court’s Baxter decision left policy choices to the legislature. “Montana state law 45-5-102 reads, under the code deliberate homicide, ‘A person commits the offense of deliberate homicide if the person purposely or knowingly causes the death of another human being,’” the sponsor said,…