Now that Donald Trump has been elected as President, Congressional Republicans are looking to assert their power over the District of Columbia’s local government. On Monday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted to block a D.C. law, the Death with Dignity law, giving physicians the right to administer lethal medication to terminally ill patients. Opponents of the law are arguing that this law clashes with ethical prohibitions against suicide, worrying about a potential marketplace for death. Unless Republicans can get the committee-passed “resolution of disapproval” through both the House and Senate and signed by President Trump by the end of the week, the law will likely take effect as passed by D.C. Council and Mayor Muriel Bowser.
See Mikaela Lefrak & Martin Austermuhle, Congress Moves to Overturn D.C. ‘Death with Dignity Law’, npr, February 14, 2017.
