LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A proposal to allow physicians to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients who want to end their lives has failed before an Arkansas House panel.
The proposal by Republican Rep. Dan Douglas failed before the House Public Health Committee on Tuesday after it didn’t receive a motion to send the bill to the chamber floor. Douglas’ bill would have added an exception to the state’s ban on physician-assisted suicide.
Douglas’ proposal would not have required doctors or health care facilities to participate in the procedure. A patient under the proposal would have to ask a doctor twice within 15 days to write a prescription for a lethal dose of drugs before the doctor could fulfill the request.
