ST. PAUL, Minn. – An overflow crowd packed a House Health Committee hearing on whether to allow physicians to facilitate a patient’s death. The committee passed the bill 10-5 and forwaded it to the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee. The prime sponsor. Mike Freiberg, D-Golden Valley, said he expected the bill to pass the House,. Passage in the Senate, observers said, could be problematic. Freiberg has introduced similar legislation before. This time, he noted, he has 25 co-sponsors. He pointed to states that have had favorable experience with physician-assisted suicide going back to Oregon in 1994. Freiberg’s bill would apply to patients with terminal illnesses and less than six months to live. They could obtain a prescribed drug to end their own lives. They would have to take the drugs themselves. Among testimony at the hearing and at a news conference outside:
> Nancy Unde, of Corcoran, who suffers aggressive brain cancer: “As I imagine the end of my life, I would like to be able to say my goodbyes and go peacefully. I’m thankful that we have hospice as an option. I will use it for the maximum comfort I can. But if it’s not enough, in the end, I want the option to die gently in my sleep.”
> Chris Massoglia, of Blaine, representing Americans United for Life: “Intentionally ending a human life is wrong. It doesn’t matter what name we call it. Suicide is not health care. And it’s completely unnecessary due to the advances in palliative and end-of-life care.”
Freiberg. Elected to the Golden Valley City Council in 2007. To the Legislature in 2012. An attorney for the Public Health Law Center in St. Paul.
Legislative detail
The 2024 Legislature doesn’t convene until February 12, but committees are free to conduct hearings earlier.
Formal title: Minnesota End-of-Life Option Act.