‘Medical aid in dying’ Bill Fails in Nevada Legislature

 By McKenna Ross 

Las Vegas Review-Journal (TNS), Updated May 16, 2025 

A proposal to give some terminally ill patients in Nevada access to life-ending medications failed to move forward in the Legislature on Friday.

Assembly Bill 346 — which would have set up a legal framework for competent and willing terminally ill patients to self-administer life-ending drugs — has had an uncertain future all session despite bipartisan support. A similar bill made it to the governor’s desk in 2023 but was vetoed.

Gov. Joe Lombardo [pictured here] said in April he would not sign the bill this session, either. In his veto message, the Republican governor attributed his discomfort in signing the bill to medical advancements and the lack of similar policies in most other states.

Still, the bill passed out of theAssembly, 23-19, on April 17. It did not receive a hearing in the state Senate. Friday is the second house passage deadline, when bills without exemptions must be referred out of committee to be considered for a floor vote next week.

The bill had a hearing scheduled on Friday, but it was canceled. Assembly member Joe Dalia, D-Henderson, said he and co-sponsor Danielle Gallant, R-Las Vegas, kept the bill moving forward after the governor’s statement because they hoped to amend it to reach something favorable to the governor. But they realized they would not have that done in time for Friday’s deadline, he said.

Utah Becomes First State to Ban Fluoride in Public Drinking Water

Utah became the first state to ban the addition of fluoride to public drinking water after Gov. Spencer Cox [pictured right] signed the law late Thursday night. The ban will take effect on May 7.

Rep. Stephanie Gricius, who sponsored the bill, said in an email to The Defender that she was thrilled the governor signed it. She said:

“The proper role of government is to provide safe, clean drinking water, not mass medicate the public. While we have banned it from being added to our water systems, we have also increased access to fluoride tablets through the pharmacies so any Utahn who wishes to take it may. But it will now be a decision each individual can make for themselves.”

The new law bans water fluoridation, but also gives pharmacists new authority to prescribe fluoride supplement pills. Typically, such pills can be prescribed only by a dentist or physician.  

“What Utah has accomplished is historic, a huge step forward,” said Rick North, board member of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN), which won a landmark ruling in a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the agency’s failure to appropriately regulate the chemical.

What About Providing Aid in Living?

Yesterday, the New York State Assembly voted to pass legislation (A136/S138), the Medical Aid in Dying Act, to legalize state-sanctioned suicide [and euthanasia] for those diagnosed with a terminal illness. We strongly urge the New York State Senate to reject this legislation and we urge you to contact your state senators and ask them to vote against this legislation. Click here to contact your state senator.  

Proceeding down this path would be both a moral and practical failure, violating the sanctity of life and leading to a further erosion in the health and well-being of society’s most vulnerable.

At a time that New York State is struggling to address the spiraling numbers of “deaths of despair” resulting from alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicides, this legislation is a giant step in the wrong direction. 

New York Talking Points, Including Commentary by Dawn Eskew & Margaret Dore

Dear Angela & Senator Palumbo, 

In attachments are the talking points I referred to you in our conversation this morning. I can not stress enough to urge everyone on our side to stay clear away from bringing up religion, moral theology, prolife, and things like that.

The problem is the proposed Bill is a Bad Policy Bill, and the reasons pointed out should be our mantra.

One can be for the concept, but not these bills. (2025 #A136 & #S138).

I will be dropping off to your office , as discussed, our brochure which contains all of the short bullet points.

Most Sincerely, 

Dawn C . Eskew1.631.487.7578

-------------------------------------------

My friend Margaret Dore [pictured above], who is copied here, provided me with four publications, which may be of help.  Please see below.

1)

Margaret Dore Featured by Hope Australia

Vote No! on S. 136: New York Should Not Be Considering Assisted Suicide When So Many People Struggle to Live.

By Lisa Blumberg (pictured right)  and Not Dead Yet.

It is disturbing that at a time when the healthcare system is so broken and so many people struggle to get the care and practical support, they need that New York would want to try repeatedly pass legislation which would legalize doctor assisted suicide. The state has shown good judgment in rejecting the idea before and should reject it now.

The pandemic has made evident the deadly health care disparities that people of color, older people and persons with disabilities have always been subjected to. Any law which enables doctors to write lethal prescriptions at the request of people deemed to have six months or less to live, as this bill would, increases risk for devalued patients.

Despite common misconceptions, uncontrollable pain is not a primary reason that people turn to assisted suicide. Data indicates that people often request lethal prescriptions due to perceived lessening of autonomy, or feelings of being burden. As Cliff Perez, a disability rights activist, states, “these reasons are… existential or disability related and ought to be addressed with quality, multidisciplinary care, not death.” It is not so much how individuals view living with limitations caused by illness or disability, but society’s stigma and failure to provide practical supports to address such limitations.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

https://www.dailywire.com/news/dont-need-dei-in-our-state-republicans-move-to-close-government-university-dei-offices  

By Leif Le Mahieu 

The Tennessee General Assembly sent two bills cracking down on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to Republican Governor Bill Lee’s desk on Tuesday as the legislative session came to a close.

One bill would ban publicly funded universities and state and local governments from maintaining DEI offices, while the other bill would prohibit those same entities from making hiring decisions based on race. Both bills passed with overwhelming Republican support.

“DEI violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson said on Tuesday. “We don’t need DEI in our state, Mr. Speaker. We need to hire people and promote people based on their merit. Diversity is a wonderful thing and it will happen. But we’re not going to make diversity the number one objective when we’re trying to serve our constituents and hire good people to take care of our constituents. It will be based on qualifications and merit.”

Nevada Governor Will Not Sign Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia Bill

https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/live-updates-nevada-legislatures-first-committee-passage-deadline-2 

Today marks the Nevada Legislature’s first committee house passage deadline, which typically marks the largest round of bill deaths in the 120-day legislative session.

By the time lawmakers wrap up today, any bills not voted out of their first committee or granted an exemption from legislative deadlines end up in the legislative graveyard....

Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo [pictured above] vetoed a whopping 75 bills last session, but a handful of the same concepts are making their way through the Legislature again....

AB346, the medical-aid-in-dying bill [allowing assisted suicide and euthanasia], passed unanimously [in committee] on Thursday and would allow terminally ill patients to request a self-administered medication to end their life. 

Though it breezed its way through committee, Lombardo encouraged the 2025 Legislature to disregard the bill because he would not sign it...

Barrosse: ‘Suicide Contagion’ Is Reason to Defeat Aid in Dying

https://baytobaynews.com/stories/barrosse-suicide-contagion-is-reason-to-defeat-aid-in-dying,218741

Ellen Barrosse [pictured left] is the retired CEO of Synchrogenix Information Strategies, a global pharmaceutical services company founded in Delaware.

As the Delaware legislature debates House Bill 140, a measure to legalize physician-assisted suicide, the discussion typically centers on individual autonomy and end-of-life dignity. However, emerging research reveals troubling and unintended consequences: The legalization of assisted suicide is associated with increases in non-assisted suicide rates across the general population — a phenomenon known as “suicide contagion.”

At a time when Delaware and the nation are experiencing record-high suicide rates, with it ranking as the second-leading cause of death for Americans aged 1-44, research from the Southern Medical Journal on U.S. states that have legalized assisted suicide shows an increase of up to 3.3 additional non-assisted suicide deaths per 100,000 residents. For Delaware, this translates to approximately 34 additional lives lost each year. The numbers may not be the same here. Instead of 34, maybe, in Delaware, only 15-20 additional non-assisted suicides will occur. We cannot know the exact number. But, based on study after study, we know the number won’t be zero.

These aren’t just statistics — they represent our neighbors, colleagues and loved ones. Some of these individuals are young people with decades of potential ahead of them, their lives cut short not by terminal illnesses but by choices made in moments of despair.

Ten Years After a ‘Six Months to Live’ Diagnosis, Stephanie Packer travels to Delaware to Warn Against the Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Stephanie Packer was told in 2012 that she had three years to live. So far, the doctors that made that prognosis are off by just 10 years.

Packer, 42, who lives in Orange County, Calif., visited Dover on March 11 to share her story with Delaware representatives who were then considering House Bill 140, which would legalize medical aid in dying, also called physician-assisted suicide. She was there to show them that there is life beyond that dire prognosis and to urge them to vote against passage of the bill.

HB 140 eventually passed the House of Representatives by a 21-17 vote with three legislators absent. It now awaits action in the Senate Executive Committee.

Reported Oregon Assisted Suicide Deaths Declined, But Do All Doctors Report?

Prescriptions for life-ending medications under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) increased between 2023 and 2024, while the number of deaths went down, according to new Oregon Health Authority (OHA) data.

According to OHA’s 27th annual report on the DWDA, the number of prescriptions written for lethal medications increased 8.2%, from 561 to 607; deaths from ingestion of lethal doses of DWDA medications dropped about 2.6%, from 386 to 376.

The 2024 data represent a significant change from 2023, when prescriptions increased about 29%, driven largely by a 2023 amendment to the DWDA that removed the state residency requirement. Deaths from ingesting the lethal medications increased that year by about 20%.

Bolt Out of the Blue: United Nations Committee Calls for Canada to Repeal Track 2 of its Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia Program.

By Ian McIntosh

This report comes in large part owing to the exceptional work done by Inclusion Canada -years in the making – who first issued this Press Release to announce this monumental news:

On Wednesday March 26, 2025, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities released a set of recommendations calling on the government of Canada to repeal Track 2 of its assisted suicide and euthanasia program. Specifically, Canada’s 2021 amendment to its Criminal Code that expanded through Bill C-7, which expanded eligibility passed promised safeguards.

Track 2 of the Canadian assisted suicide and euthanasia program allows people with disabilities (“grievous and irremediable medical condition”) whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable to request assisted suicide or euthanasia.

Arguing against the very premise of Track 2, the report notes that the Canadian federal government,”…did not challenge the Quebec Truchon decision which fundamentally changes the whole premise of medical assistance in dying when natural death is reasonably foreseeable to a new program that establishes medically assisted dying for persons with disabilities based on negative, ableist perceptions of the quality and value of the life of persons with disabilities, including that ‘suffering’ is intrinsic to disability rather than the fact that inequality and discrimination cause and compound ‘suffering’ for persons with disabilities.”

Attempt to Raise Assisted Suicide Bill in New Hampshire Decisively Defeated

Dear Advocates and Friends, 

Last week we shared the good news that the New Hampshire assisted suicide bill was tabled by a slim margin of a single vote. Today, an attempt was made to raise it from the table. I'm pleased to inform you that the attempt failed! In a sharp turn from the close vote of last week, 205 legislators voted against removing the bill from the table, to 169 votes in support. There remains the technical chance that the bill could be raised again but, given the decisive vote today, the likelihood of such an action is highly unlikely.    

I remain grateful to the wonderful advocates on the ground who continue to show up, write letters, meet with legislators, and do the work of educating their neighbors on this important issue. Thanks to their tireless efforts, New Hampshire remains safe today and likely for the rest of the session, from the dangerous and discriminatory policy of assisted suicide.

 

Onward!

Jessica Rodgers (pictured above)

Award Winning 2025 Documentary, "Disposable Humanity," Scores at 31st Slamdance Festival

Content provided by Ian McIntosh and Not Dead Yet 

https://notdeadyet.org/unstoppable-award-winning-2025-documentary-disposable-humanity-scores-at-31st-slamdance-festival

Out of nearly two thousand entries, 146 films were selected for the 2025 Slamdance Film Festival in Los Angeles. Disposable Humanity captured the Audience Award and received an Honorable Mention for the Slamdance Unstoppable Feature Grand Jury Prize.

In Disposable Humanity, a profound, unforgettable documentary of historic disability injustice, Cameron Mitchell and his family guide the viewer down corridors of Nazi era eugenical horror into a past that many of us think we know but don’t.

Tim Stainton, Director of the University of British Columbia’s Institute for Inclusion and Citizenship once called Canada’s eugenical descent into assisted suicide and euthanasia, “the biggest existential threat to disabled people since the Nazi’s program in Germany in the 1930s”.

For anyone engaged in fighting health disparities and disability discrimination today, it becomes plain by the end of the film that the present-day creep of assisted suicide laws in America has an essential part of its ancestry rooted in the international ideas, language and maps of Aktion T4 – the Euthanasia Program of yesterday.

Marsha Joiner's New Book "Betrayal By Hospice & Healthcare"

Click the link at the bottom of the page to order Marsha's book.

In 2017, my Mother was murdered by hospice drug protocol. She was not dying when we were enticed to enroll her to provide help to my Dad, her caregiver as my sister and I lived states away. That began my journey warning people about the reality of what hospice had become. I became a talk show host on Betrayed by Hospice sharing her story as well as having other guests on to share the heartbreaking story of them losing a loved one to hospice. I also had experts on from various organizations to share what they could do to help. 

That was almost eight years ago. In February 2024 I started writing a book about what I have learned over those years.  My Mother's story as well as 34 others stories is included in this book. It was finished in March 2025 and is now published!

Spanish Court Refuses to Prevent Young Woman's Euthanasia Death.

Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Agence France-Presse reported on March 17 that a Spanish court rejected an appeal by a father who tried to stop his 24-year-old paraplegic daughter's euthanasia death.

Decisions, like this one, emphasize how the euthanasia laws undermine the lives of people with disabilities.

According to the article, the 24-year-old woman, who was injured in a suicide attempt, was scheduled to die by euthanasia in August 2024 when her father achieved a court injunction to prevent the death. The article stated that:

The father argued that his daughter suffered from mental disorders that "could affect her ability to make a free and conscious decision" as required by law.

He also said there were indications his daughter had changed her mind and that her ailment did not entail "unbearable physical or psychological suffering".