Bill to clarify that assisted suicide is prohibited in Idaho unanimously passes in the Idaho Senate Affairs Committee.

The bill to clearly define assisted suicide as prohibited in Idaho has unanimously passed in the Idaho Senate Affairs Committee.

The Idaho Spokesman Review stated:

Legislation to outlaw physician-assisted suicide in Idaho has cleared the Senate State Affairs Committee, which just voted to send SB 1070 to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass. The bill was sponsored by pro-life groups who worked with the Idaho Medical Association, in order to protect physicians making appropriate patient-care decisions for dying patients or following those patients' living wills or advance care directives.

Ken McClure, IMA lobbyist, told the committee, “Under current law, it is not at all clear whether assisted suicide is a crime or not.” It's not currently a part of Idaho's standards for patient care, he said, and doctors don't want it to be. “This law gives a physician the assurance that if proper medical care is being given, he or she is safe from prosecution,” McClure told the senators.

The bill makes it a felony to assist in a suicide, plus revokes the licenses of physicians who do so. It also authorizes court injunctions against anyone “reasonably believed to be about to violate” the new law.