Maryland weighs ‘Death With Dignity’ legislation
Source: Washington Post
Maryland weighs ‘Death With Dignity’ legislation
By Ovetta Wiggins March 6 at 6:40 PM
Terminally ill patients and those who have cared for them asked Maryland lawmakers on Friday to give people facing death the right to end their lives on their own terms.
The emotional testimony comes as the Maryland General Assembly weighs a “Death With Dignity” bill, a measure that would allow doctors to prescribe lethal medications to terminally ill patients.
“I urge you to vote for this bill to give me and others some control over our final days,” said Kelly Lange, a resident of Annapolis who has stage 4 breast cancer and volunteers as a patient advocate. “Most people that I have worked with are not afraid to die. More often, they are afraid of pain, and they are afraid of losing control of their lives and bodies.”
Maryland joins the District and more than a dozen states that are considering what advocates call “aid in dying” statutes — also known as assisted suicide — this year. Momentum across the country has increased since 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, who suffered from an inoperable brain tumor, moved to Oregon to die under the state’s Death With Dignity law.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/maryland-weighs-death-with-dignity-legislation/2015/03/06/187fa3b6-c3a0-11e4-9ec2-b418f57a4a99_story.html?tid=hpModule_13097a0c-868e-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394
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