This week Governor Matt Meyer held a public signing ceremony for several bills, including House Bill 140, which legalizes assisted suicide in Delaware. 

Opposition from faith leaders, medical professionals, and the disability community did not dissuade the governor from adding his signature to this bill.

In the Senate HB 140 passed with a vote of 11 for and 8 against. Three Democrats joined five Republican senators in voting against the bill. One Democrat senator and one Republican senator were absent on the day of the vote.

House Bill 140 also passed last year with the bare miniumum of 11 votes in the Senate, but then governor John Carney vetoed the bill.

Stephen L. Mikochik, professor emeritus at Temple Law School in Philadelphia, wrote to the governor and General Assembly expressing his uneasiness about the bill. 

Here are a few of Professor Mikochik’s concerns:

• Nothing in the bill requires any pain, discomfort, or reduction in the quality of life as a condition for receipt of a lethal prescription.

• Once the lethal prescription is delivered, the medical provider has no continuing duty toward the patient when the drug is taken to ensure against any mishaps. 

• It is not the patient’s care that is at the bill’s center but rather safeguarding the provider from civil and criminal liability for prescribing a lethal drug. 

• At the very time the terminal prognosis is made, the attending physician or advanced practice registered nurse can advise the patient that lethal medication is a treatment option.  At the same time, the patient can make the first oral request for the lethal drug.

• The attending physician or advanced practice registered nurse can then refer the patient to a consulting physician or advanced practice registered nurse whose primary practice is aid-in-dying and who can witness the patient’s written request for lethal medication.

• The patient can have the lethal medication in hand 15 days after the terminal prognosis is made, if the attending physician or advanced practice registered nurse is legally permitted to dispense the drug.

• Nothing in the bill requires the attending or consulting physician or advanced practice registered nurse to re-evaluate the patient’s decision-making capacity at the time the lethal medication is taken, even though months may have passed since the prescription was written.

• Nothing requires their presence, the presence of any health care provider, or anyone not financially interested in the patient’s death, when the patient ingests the lethal medication. 

Professor Mikochik also referred to the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Washington v. Glucksberg, that enumerated some reasons why a State would prohibit such practice.

• The State “has an unqualified interest in the preservation of human life.” [I wish Delaware legislators understood this importance.]

• The State “has an interest in protecting vulnerable groups, including the poor, the elderly, and disabled persons, from abuse, neglect, and mistakes.” 

• The State “may fear that permitting assisted suicide will start it down the path to voluntary and perhaps even involuntary euthanasia.”

Delaware has taken another step away from protecting human life. When will life be seen as a gift from God, something of great value to be respected?