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With the help of pro-life advocates, a bill to legalize assisted suicide in Nevada was defeated May 16 when it did was not advanced by a state senate committee.
This is the fifth time that such legislation has failed to pass in the state,
Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo had previously stated that he would veto any assisted suicide legislation if it passed the senate, according to Breitbart. Lombardo vetoed a similar proposal in 2023.
Assembly Bill 346 would have allowed adults with a prognosis of six months or less to live to end their lives with a prescription from a doctor or nurse practitioner. The bill also stipulated that the adults must be “mentally capable” to make the decision.
Breitbart explains that the bill failed to advance past a committee deadline on May 16, and therefore is not eligible to pass in 2025.
In an interview with LifeNews, Sarah Davenport-Smith of the Patients’ Rights Action Fund attributed the bill’s defeat in part to pro-life advocates who protested the legislation.
“The bill started out in the Assembly and the first hearing was through a non-traditional ad-hoc committee of hand-picked proponents of assisted suicide,” she said. “The rules of public testimony and a fair hearing did not apply.”
The bill was amended and passed the assembly in a 23-19 vote, as CatholicVote previously reported, and moved to the senate’s Health and Human Services committee. But the pro-life advocates did not give up. Nevada Coalition of the Patients’ Rights Action Fund met with senators, wrote op-eds, and reached out to other pro-life organizations to gain more influence.
“Their work paid off!” Davenport-Smith said of the coalition. “In the end, the votes were not even present in the Senate committee.”
