Current Status
There is no legislative activity around Death with Dignity in Alabama.
An aid-in-dying bill has never been introduced in the Alabama legislature.
In the 2017 legislative session, companion bill “banning assisted suicide” (HB 96/SB 198) were introduced. The Senate version was approved in the Health and Human Services Committee on March 9, 2017, 7 to 1. The bill was then indefinitely postponed in the Senate and is done for the session. The House version, however, was passed on March 16, sent to the Senate where an amended version was approved 25 to 3 on April 20 and in the House by 80 to 2 on April 25. The bill was delivered to the Governor on April 27.
A bill allowing for conscience-based opt-out from any services, including presumably assisted dying, for physicians was also introduced.
Resources
Read a powerful story from Shameeka Linson, a substitute teacher in Alabama, who watched her grandmother die a painful death from lung cancer because no Death with Dignity law was in place.
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