March 20, 2016

Senate Physicians Assisted Suicide failed to move out of committee.

The Senate Health, Human Services, Housing committee held a hearing on March 16th on the Physicians assisted suicide proposal at the Minnesota legislature.  CHA MN worked together with our coalition partners to recruit testifiers, create messaging, and lobbied members of the committee.

During the hearing, it became apparent the proponents did not have the votes necessary to pass the measure out of the committee, there were some attempts to get a vote that would have rejected the bill, but procedural measures were used to prevent the bill from being voted down.

At the end of the hearing the bill was withdrawn from consideration.  This was important for technical reasons because if it were laid on the table, there could be procedural efforts to bring it off the table when the votes were present to pass, instead, they now have to notice and schedule the bill for another hearing, in order for there to be action in the committee.

Great news for today.  However, because there could always be efforts to bring the issue up on the floor, we will continue to monitor. To date, the house has not expressed any interest in hearing the bill.

http://www.startribune.com/doctor-assisted-suicide-proposal-tabled-after-emotional-hearing/372299371/