Baumbach on “End Of Life Options” act: “This is a death and death question issue”
It's a case of deja-vu in Delaware.
House Bill 160, also known as the End Of Life Options Act, would legalize doctor-assisted suicide and is being considered once again. The measure was tabled in the committee two years ago when it was first introduced by District 23 Representative Paul Baumbach of Newark.
"This is not a life and death question issue. This is a death and death question issue," Representative Baumbach told 47ABC on Wednesday.
Under the act, it would allow an adult diagnosed with a terminal illness who is expected to die within six months to request prescription medicine to end his or her life. A consulting physician would have to confirm the attending doctor's diagnosis.
Baumbach says the purpose of the measure is to give more options.
"If you go to any senior center across the state, up and down the state…and you sit down and you lunch with people and you talk about this issue, they know it because they've got friends who have gone through this," he explains.
The patient would also have to make both oral and written requests, plus wait at least 15 days after the initial request before receiving the drugs; however, this type of legislation has not come without pushback.
The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund has publicly opposed the legalization of assisted suicide in the past. Of the several arguments presented by the policy center, they describe managed care and assisted suicide as "a deadly mix".
The organization claims the impact of legalizing assisted suicide would fall hardest on socially and economically disadvantaged people who have less access to medical resources.
Baumbach says he's prepared for opposition on this admittedly controversial measure.
"Yes, were going to hear from bishops and cardinals who oppose it and we want to hear from them," he says. "But I want my legislators to hear from their constituents and their constituents understand this."
Milford resident Tressie Fullmore says she doesn't see a problem with doctor-assisted suicide.
"My mother has chronic pain all the time and I could understand where if she was going to be diagnosed with a terminally disease and only had six months…if she wanted to go ahead and do it, that's her own opinion. That's what she wants to do, then let her do it," says Fullmore. "We're entitled to our own selves."
Passage or not, Baumbach says the issue of assisted suicide is clearly not simple and adds it's going to take time for the public to understand the issue alone.
This bill has been assigned to the House Health and Human Development Committee. The next step is finding a date for the measure to be heard.
