HB496 By Representatives Mooney, Hubbard, Weaver, Fridy, Wingo and Fincher RFD Judiciary Rd 1 14-APR-15

SYNOPSIS: This bill would provide for the Assisted Suicide Ban Act.

This bill would prohibit a person or a health care provider from providing aid in dying to another person and would provide civil and criminal penalties.

Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, prohibits a general law whose purpose or effect would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds from becoming effective with regard to a local governmental entity without enactment by a 2/3 vote unless: it comes within one of a number of specified exceptions; it is approved by the affected entity; or the Legislature appropriates funds, or provides a local source of revenue, to the entity for the purpose.

The purpose or effect of this bill would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of the amendment. However, the bill does not require approval of a local governmental entity or enactment by a 2/3 vote to become effective because it comes within one of the specified exceptions contained in the amendment.

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT

To provide for the Assisted Suicide Ban Act; to prohibit a person or a health care provider from providing aid in dying under certain conditions; to provide civil and criminal penalties; and in connection therewith to have as its purpose or effect the requirement of a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA:

Section 1. This act may be known and cited as the Assisted Suicide Ban Act.

Section 2. (a) The Legislature finds all of the following:

(1) In almost every state, it is a crime to assist a suicide. These bans are long-standing expressions of the commitment of the states to protect and preserve all human life.

(2) Opposition to and condemnation of suicide and assisted suicide are consistent and enduring themes of our philosophical, legal, and cultural heritages, and the state continues to explicitly reject suicide and assisted suicide today, even for terminally ill, mentally competent adults.

(3) The state has an interest in protecting vulnerable groups, including the impoverished, the elderly, and disabled persons from abuse, neglect, and mistakes. A ban on assisted suicide reflects and reinforces our belief that the lives of those in vulnerable groups are no less valued than the lives of the young and healthy.

(4) The state has an interest in protecting the integrity and ethics of the medical profession, including its obligation to serve its patients as healers and adhere to the principles articulated in the Hippocratic Oath.

(5) The state recognizes the close link between physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia where a right to die can easily become a duty to die. A prohibition against assisted suicide is the only reasonable means to protect against foreseeable abuses.

(6) The state recognizes the distinction between a patient refusing life-sustaining medical treatment where he or she dies from the underlying fatal disease and a patient ingesting or administering a lethal medication prescribed by a physician, where the medication is the cause of death. The state also recognizes the difference between pain management intended to alleviate pain and pain medicine used to assist in causing death.

(b) Based on the findings in subsection (a), it is the purpose of this act to do both of the following:

(1) Provide protection for our most vulnerable citizens by explicitly prohibiting assisted suicide within the criminal code of the state.

(2) Reinforce and reflect the intended purpose of our medical professions to preserve life and act as healers.

Section 3. As used in this act, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

(1) AID IN DYING. The act or instance of a person providing the means or manner for another to be able to commit suicide, knowing that the person deliberately intends on committing suicide by that means or manner.

(2) DELIBERATELY. More than knowing the consequences of an act or action; meaning to consider carefully; done on purpose; intentional; requiring premeditation.

(3) HEALTH CARE PROVIDER. Any individual who may be asked to participate in any way in a health care service, including, but not limited to, a physician, physician's assistant, nurse, nurse's aide, medical assistant, hospital employee, clinic employee, nursing home employee, pharmacist, pharmacy employee, researcher, medical or nursing school faculty member, student, or employee, counselor, social worker, or any professional, paraprofessional, or any other person who furnishes or assists in the furnishing of health care services.

(4) LIFE-SUSTAINING TREATMENT. Any medical treatment, procedure, or intervention, including, but not limited to, assisted ventilation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, renal dialysis, surgical procedures, blood transfusions, and the administration of drugs and antibiotics.

(5) PERSON. Any natural person, and when appropriate, an organization, to include all of the following:

a. A public or private corporation, company, association, firm, partnership, or joint-stock company.

b. Government or a governmental instrumentality.

c. A foundation, institution, society, union, club, or church.

(6) PHYSICIAN. A person licensed to practice medicine in the state, including medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy.

(7) SUICIDE. The act or instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally.

Section 4. (a) Any person who deliberately advises, assists, or encourages another to commit suicide or provides aid in dying is guilty of a Class C felony.

(b) Any physician or health care provider who prescribes any drug, compound, or substance to a patient deliberately to aid in dying or assists or performs any medical procedure deliberately to aid in dying is guilty of a Class C felony.

Section 5. (a) Any person, physician, or health care provider who deliberately violates this act by aiding in dying shall be liable for damages.

(b) If any person deliberately aids in dying that results in death, any surviving family member, other beneficiary, executor, or administrator of the estate of the decedent may bring an appropriate action for wrongful death.

(c) Any physician or other health care provider who deliberately aids in dying in violation of this act shall be considered to have engaged in unprofessional conduct for which his or her license to provide health care services in the state shall be suspended or revoked by the appropriate licensing board.

Section 6. Nothing in this act shall be construed to prohibit a physician or health care provider from doing any of the following:

(1) Participating in the execution of a person sentenced by a court to death by lethal injection.

(2) Following a patient's wishes to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment, nutrition, or hydration.

(3) Prescribing and administering palliative care or pain medication treatment options intended to relieve pain while the illness or condition of the patient follows its natural course.

Section 7. The Legislature, by joint resolution, may appoint one or more of its members who sponsored or cosponsored this act, in his or her official capacity, to intervene as a matter of right in any case in which the constitutionality of this act, or any portion thereof, is challenged.

Section 8. Although this bill would have as its purpose or effect the requirement of a new or increased expenditure of local funds, the bill is excluded from further requirements and application under Amendment 621, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, because the bill defines a new crime or amends the definition of an existing crime.

Section 9. The provisions of this act are severable. If any part of this act is declared invalid or unconstitutional, that declaration shall not affect the part which remains.

Section 10. This act shall become effective on the first day of the third month following its passage and approval by the Governor, or its otherwise becoming law.

Health Care

Crimes and Offenses

Health Care Providers

Physicians

Hospitals

Pharmacists