Montana Senate Eliminates Legal Protections for Assisted Suicide

By Darrell Ehrlick

Currently, physician-assisted aid in dying in Montana occupies a legal gray area. A 2009 Montana Supreme Court ruling said a physician can raise a defense in a homicide case, saying that a patient consented and sought out the drugs, but the high court said that it was ultimately up to the Legislature to make the final decision on the legality of physician assistance in suicide.

On Friday, the Montana Senate passed Senate Bill 136, which would disallow patient consent as a defense to physician-assisted aid in dying [assisted suicide], effectively giving physicians no legal protection if they participated in administering drugs that would end a terminally ill patient's life.

The measure passed 29-20, with all Democrats voting against the measure.  Three Republicans joined the Democrats... 

Sen. Carl Glimm, R-Kila, has carried a similar bill in previous sessions, and pointed to physician assisted aid in dying, often referred to by opponents as "physician suicide," in other countries, such as Canada and European, calling them "slippery slopes."

"It will just keep growing and growing," Glimm said, citing cases where a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder "was talked into suicide."...

Bill Seeking to Prohibit Legal Assisted Suicide Faces Third and Final Reading

Senator Glimm

By Alex Schadenberg

Montanans have a confusing legal situation concerning assisted suicide. 

In 2009, [Montana's] 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[.]  ... [The Baxter court also] found a "defense of consent" meaning a Montana physician who assists a suicide must prove that there was consent [to death by the person who died.]

Senate Bill 136 legislatively declares that there is no defense of consent. ...

Delaware Residents with Money Will Be Rendered Sitting Ducks to Their Heirs (HB 140)

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

“Aid in Dying” has been a euphemism for physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia since at least 1992.

Per the American Medical Association, "physician-assisted suicide" occurs when a doctor facilitates a patient’s death by providing the means or information to enable a patient to perform the life-ending act. "Euthanasia" is the administration of a lethal agent to kill another person.

Persons assisting a suicide or euthanasia can have an agenda. Reported motives have included: the “thrill” of getting other people to kill themselves; and wanting to see another person die.

The proposed Delaware Act (HB 140) has a formal application process to obtain the lethal dose. Once the lethal dose is issued by the pharmacy, there is no required oversight. No witness, not even a doctor or other medical person is required to be present at a patient's death.

Vermont Study Group Rejects Call by Naturopaths to take part in Medical Aid in Dying

A legislative committee is recommending against allowing naturopathic physicians to play a greater role in the state’s medical aid in dying program [also known as physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia].

The Vermont Association of Naturopathic Physicians last year asked lawmakers to allow naturopaths to prescribe the medicine that hastens death.

The group also wants the state to allow its members to sign an advanced directive, and advise patients during the signing of do-not-resuscitate orders.

The Legislature put a study group together to consider the changes to Act 39, Vermont’s medical aid in dying law, and that group recently published its findings, which recommended against making major changes to the law at this time.

Off Topic: Pacific Palisades Reservoir Was Closed and Empty When Los Angeles Wildfires Erupted

 01/10/25

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/01/10/officials-pacific-palisades-reservoir-was-closed-empty-when-los-angeles-wildfires-erupted

The Santa Ynez Reservoir is connected to the Los Angeles water supply system, and authorities said it was shut down for repairs at the time the fires erupted, “leaving a 117 million gallon water storage complex empty in the heart of the Palisades,” the newspaper reported on Friday.

The news comes as people are questioning why firefighters ran out of water as they tried to save structures and communities from the blaze that has wreaked havoc across the Los Angeles area.

“Department of Water and Power [DWP] officials have said that demand for water during an unprecedented fire made it impossible to maintain any pressure to hydrants at high elevations,” the report noted.

Former DWP general manager Martin Adams said if the reservoir had been ready for operation, the water pressure would have reached the Palisades for a time but would not have fixed the issue entirely.

“It’s unclear when the reservoir first went offline. Adams said it had been out of service ‘for a while’ due to a tear in the cover and that DWP’s vast storage and supply infrastructure still provided water to residents without disruptions, until this week,” the Times report said.

Uruguay Debating Euthanasia

By Alex Schadenberg

The MercoPress reported on January 7, 2025 that Uruguay's future President Yamandú Orsi, the leader of the Broad Front party, who is taking office on March 1, 2025 supports the passing of a euthanasia bill.

Congressman-elect Federico Preve intends to introduce a bill that is similar to a previous euthanasia bill. The MercoPress reported:

According to Preve, the plan is to introduce a new bill that is as similar as possible to the previous one, in a move to speed up its approval. “I have great expectations that by the end of the year, or next year at the latest, Uruguay will have decriminalized euthanasia,” Preve stressed while recalling that Colorado Ope Pasquet's bill “did not even” get a “yes or no” after failing to make it through the Senate's Health Committee. In Preve's view, legal euthanasia is a much-needed alternative and “a right for many people who are in quite complicated situations.”

A bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide was introduced in the Uruguayan Congress on March 11, 2020. My assessment of that Uruguay bill was that it lacked definition allowing it to be widely interpreted.