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Aid-In-Dying Bill Won't Be Voted On This Legislative Session

Michelle Lee
/
Creative Commons
Inside the Connecticut State Capitol.
Advocates decided to pull the bill from the Judiciary Committee's consideration.

Advocates for a law to allow terminally ill patients access to life ending drugs are hoping for success next year because there's not enough support this legislative session.

This is the third time aid-in-dying legislation has been before a legislative committee.

Tim Appleton is the state campaign manager for Compassion and Choices, a group that supports aid-in-dying laws across the country. He said advocates decided to pull the bill from the Judiciary Committee's consideration.

"We were concerned that if the votes weren't there to come out of committee, that a vote in the negative would set back this issue for several years," Appleton said. "With everything that's at stake -- with the 7,000 people who die from terminal cancers every single year, many of them wanting this choice -- we just could not take that risk."

Appleton said four other states including Vermont have laws that give residents who have terminal illnesses a choice. He also pointed to previous Quinnipiac Polls that show there's public support for this law in Connecticut.

Similar bills failed to get out of the Public Health Committee during the previous two sessions. The Connecticut Catholic Conference has lobbied strongly against the bill each year that it's come up.

Lucy leads Connecticut Public's strategies to deeply connect and build collaborations with community-focused organizations across the state.

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