Maryland committees hear emotional and technical debate over End of Life Option Act

Delegate Terri Hill, sponsor of House Bill 13-28, opened a joint hearing of the House Health and Government Operations and Judiciary Committees by summarizing the bill as a narrowly-defined medical option for some terminally ill adults and stressing its safeguards. “I highly value life, and I highly value life with dignity and the dignity of death,” Hill said as she read provisions from the bill describing how a qualified patient would request and receive medication.

The bill, titled the End of Life Option Act and referenced in the hearing as the Elijah E. Cummings and Shaney Pendergrass Act, would allow a physician to prescribe medication that a qualified individual may self-administer to bring about death. Under the version read into the record, a patient would make an initial oral request, then a second oral request at least 15 days later; a written request signed and dated by the individual must be witnessed by two people (no more than one may be a relative), and at least one of the oral requests must occur when the patient is alone with the physician. The attending physician would confirm capacity and diagnosis, a consulting physician would confirm the prognosis, and either physician must refer for a licensed mental health assessment if they have concerns about impaired judgment. The bill states an individual “is not considered qualified if that qualification is solely due to their age, disability, or specific illness.”

Why it matters: supporters and many witnesses said the law would give mentally capable adults facing imminent death an additional option to…