Des Moines, Iowa — There was emotional debate over a controversial issue in the statehouse last week.
Republican State Senator David Johnson of Ocheyedan tells us about a bill that has been dubbed the “Death With Dignity” bill.
But Johnson says he’s not in favor of the bill. For one thing, he says, who would prove that the proposed law was being abused? He says he met a woman who has lived ten years with an aggressive and deadly type of breast cancer after her doctor told her she was not expected to survive five years. He says as a cancer survivor, he understands pain, but legally giving someone the means to end their own life just doesn’t fit in with his “conception to natural death” view of human life.
He says while the bill is still alive, the three-member subcommittee that he was on that was discussing the bill did not advance the subcommittee report to the full Human Resources Committee.
By Friday, February 19, all bills need to be reported out of their first committee. That means that a bill that starts in the Senate needs to be voted out of a Senate committee, and a bill that starts in the House needs to be voted out of a House committee. Bills left in committee after this date are dead; bills that survive get to move on in the process.
