Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
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| Senator Carl Glimm |
The Montana Senate voted 29 to 20, to pass Senate Bill 136. on February 7. SB 136 is sponsored by Montana State Senator, Carl Glimm to prevent assisted suicide.
Contact Montana State Senators and urge them to vote YES on SB 136 at the third and final reading. (List of legislative members).
Montanans have a confusing legal situation concerning assisted suicide.
In 2009, the Baxter court decision declared that Montanans have a right to assisted suicide. The Baxter decision was appealed to the Montana Supreme Court where it was decided that there is not a right to assisted suicide in Montana but the Court found a "defense of consent" meaning a Montana physician who assists a suicide must prove that there was consent. Senate Bill 136 legislatively declares that there is no defense of consent.
Article: Physician-Assisted Suicide is not legal in Montana.
Since the Baxter decision, the assisted suicide lobby claims that assisted suicide is legal in Montana while assisted suicide remains technically prohibited. Montanans are dying by assisted suicide.
SB 136 will prevent assisted suicide by clarifying that consent is not a defense for homicide or assisted suicide. Among other things SB 136 states:
(3) (a) For the purposes of subsection (2)(d), physician aid in dying is against public policy, and a patient's consent to physician aid in dying is not a defense to a charge of homicide against the aiding physician.
(b) (i) For the purposes of this subsection (3), "physician aid in dying" means an act by a physician of prescribing a lethal dose of medication to a patient that the patient may self-administer to end the patient's life.
(ii) The term does not include an act of withholding or withdrawing a life-sustaining treatment or procedure authorized pursuant to Title 50, chapter 9 or 10."
Contact Montana State Senators and urge them to vote YES on SB 136 at the third and final reading. (List of legislative members).
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