AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine Legislature voted Tuesday to legalize assisted suicide, with supporters declaring it in line with the state’s tradition of individualism and opponents insisting the practice tempts fate.
The bill now goes to Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who has 10 days to act on the bill and has not indicated whether she will let it become law. Her office said she has not yet taken a position.
The proposal had failed once in a statewide vote and at least seven previous times in the Legislature. If Mills signs it, Maine would join seven other states, including New Jersey this year, and Washington, D.C., with similar laws, according to the Death With Dignity National Center and the Death With Dignity Political Fund.
Maine’s bill would allow doctors to prescribe terminally ill people a fatal dose of medication. The bill declares that obtaining or administering life-ending medication is not suicide under state law. Still, it effectively legalizes it.
The proposal passed the Democratic-led state Senate 19-16 on Tuesday after lawmakers recounted the last days of their own loved ones. The Democratic-led House had approved it Monday by the narrowest of margins — 73-72.
Maine has the oldest average state population. But as in other states, the proposal has exposed divisions regardless of party line.
“I hope you will come down on the side of the terminally ill, people who don’t seem to be asking for too much: the right to choose their own end of life care,” said Republican Sen. Marianne Moore, a supporter who pointed to the bill’s pages of protections for terminally ill patients.
That captures the spirit of the “libertarian Maine tradition” of individual rights and individual autonomy, she said. READ MORE
