NJ Assembly Committee Clears 'Death With Dignity Act'
By David Madden
TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) – A New Jersey Assembly committee cleared a measure that would give voters the ability to decide if assisted suicide should be legalized for terminally ill people who want to take that action.
Proponents of the measure would rather you call it "death with dignity" but the chairman of the Health and Senior Services Committee, himself a physician, says the bill is meant to help people take their own lives, And that's suicide as he sees it.
Shiela McLaughlin's aunt died, in a lot of pain, at age 94.
"I wish my aunt had had another choice. I wish she had been able to die with the same dignity that she lived. I think about how I might someday find myself in her situation and I know I want another choice," McLaughlin explains.
If voters approve, someone with less than six months to live would be able to go through a three step process to obtain a drug they can take to end their life.
Opponents insist fatal prognoses are often inaccurately timed and, besides, the concept goes against medical ethics. The proposal goes to the full assembly next for a vote.
