Opponents and advocates say the issue isn't red or blue--it's emotional and personal.
On Friday, a Montana bill that would have codified assisted suicide into state law died in a state House committee after gaining bipartisan support.
Two days before, the committee heard more than an hour of emotional testimony on the bill from members of the public. Rep. Tracy Sharp, a Republican, acknowledged that the bill raises questions about the sanctity of life.
“I’m anti-abortion,” he said ahead of a vote on the bill. “But I just can’t vote to deny all the people that we heard … something that I would want for myself.” Sharp said that voting no on the measure “would be too hypocritical. I would like to die with dignity.”
Assisted suicide in Montana has taken place in a legal gray area since 2009, when the state Supreme Court ruled that doctors can cite the consent of a patient as a defense to a charge of murder. Despite a longstanding Republican majority in the House and Senate, the topic has divided the state legislature for years. Montana has neither officially legalized the practice nor closed the court-created loophole. As legislators consider the issue again this year, lawmakers and lobbyists attribute the bipartisan support and opposition to assisted suicide to the personal nature and emotional complexity of the debate.
