HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut lawmakers on Monday heard another round of gripping testimony about whether to allow terminally ill, adult patients to receive medical help in dying.
Dozens testified Monday before the General Assembly's Public Health Committee, where advocates said dying people should have the option to take their own lives to relieve suffering. Opponents, however, warned the state would be making an ethical mistake by allowing mentally competent patients, with less than six months to live, to be prescribed a lethal dose of medication for self-ingestion.
Peter Wolfgang, executive director of the socially conservative Family Institute of Connecticut, said he worries that other states have expanded their definition of terminal illness to expand eligibility.
"That is the path you're putting us on if you legalize assisted suicide,'' he said, urging lawmakers consider the "true long-term cost of legalizing assisted suicide to our most vulnerable citizens.''
Wolfgang echoed concerns raised many with disabilities who testified.
But two-time Tony Award winning actor James Naughton, a native of West Hartford who has lived most of his life in Weston, said his late wife Pam would have wanted the option to end her own life after fighting pancreatic cancer for four years. Nearly six years after her death, Naughton told lawmakers about how his wife one day, after trying numerous drugs and therapies, told him she didn't want to wake up anymore.
"When you get to the end and see your loved one suffering, I think it's merciful to do something to try to help her out,'' he said. "Had I had the chance, I would have done that. No question in my mind.''
This is the fourth such bill proposed since 2014 in Connecticut. None has received a vote.
This year's bill is modeled after Oregon's law.
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