Washington D.C. City Council To Consider Assisted Suicide

Washington D.C. is considering legislation that would allow the use of physician assisted suicide to those that have less than six months to live. The bill is modeled on the Oregon assisted suicide statute that has been used over 800 times since it was passed into law in 1997. However, opposition is strong as groups argue that it would be religiously impermissible to allow suicide combined with concerns that it will be used by relations to pressure family members into early death for convenience or inheritance reasons. So far, only hearings on the proposal have been held and the full council is not expected to take up the issue until later this year.

See Abigail Hauslohner, D.C. could be the next place to legalize assisted death for the terminally ill, Washington Post, July 10, 2015.