Fearing the bill might not get enough votes to pass, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson said Friday that legislation allowing medically assisted suicide may meet its end in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.
“This is not a bill that we're going to twist our arms around,” Ferguson, a Democrat from Baltimore, said at a news conference Friday morning. “This is where it gets very personal, and people look at it very personally. And so we'd like to know where the votes are before things go forward, but it's going to be very close, if we go forward.”
Sponsored by Senate Judiciary Proceedings Committee Vice Chairman Jeff Waldstreicher, a Democrat from Montgomery County, the End of Life Choice Act would allow terminally ill residents to request medically assisted suicide if they were able to make their own medical decisions, and continue to be able to do so. Able to self-administer medication and expected to die within six months.
Patients will first need to request the procedure verbally, then submit a written request that they must sign and have two witnesses. Patients will be subject to a waiting period of 15 days after submitting their verbal request and a waiting period of at least two days after submitting their written request.
They will then have to submit a second oral application after waiting periods. The second verbal request should be made without witnesses to ensure that the patient is not forced to continue with the procedure.
Doctors will be protected from civil and criminal prosecution for prescribing the drug. Their participation in the process will be voluntary.
The bill's advocates realize it's difficult to get a vote, but they pay tribute to those who suffered during the legislation's long history in the General Assembly.
Donna Smith, Maryland campaign director for the Compassion and Choices Action Network, said more than a dozen of her volunteers “who spent their final days walking the halls trying to get this bill passed” died in the nine-year battle to pass the legislation.
“We realize this is a very personal issue for lawmakers,” Smith said. “But this is the most deeply personal issue for terminally ill Marylanders like Baltimore resident Diane Krause and Silver Spring resident Lynn Keefe. They are counting on lawmakers to pass an end-of-life option law this year because they may not be there next year.”
The bill nearly passed the Senate in 2019, but was short of a single vote. In an interview before the 2024 legislative session, Ferguson said he believed he would have enough votes to pass it this year.
The Senate and House versions of the bill held hearings earlier this month. Neither of them received the committee vote that would have moved the legislation to the debate floor. Ferguson said he holds talks with members of his government regularly to assess their views on the issue.
“If I don’t think there are enough votes to pass the bill, I don’t think we will have it [the Judicial Proceedings Committee] “Vote on the bill,” he said Friday.
With 45 days remaining in Maryland's 90-day legislative session, the tide could turn in the bill's favor. But Ferguson is treading carefully, noting that it's a difficult topic for many lawmakers to consider.
However, he also said he believes this is “the right way to go in Maryland with the proper protections.”
“I voted for it previously,” the Senate president said. “But I understand reasonably and rationally why someone is on the other side of it, so I want to know where people are and why they are there.”
