Delaware governor expected to sign newly approved assisted suicide bill

But Townsend opposed the change, saying the oversight mechanisms Richardson was seeking are already in place, along with a separate duty from medical professionals to report violations.

All of the Republican senators opposed the bill, along with Democratic state Sens. Spiros Mantzavinos, Nicole Poore and Jack Walsh. Many of them said they were concerned it was a slippery slope that could lead to the guardrails being chipped away to allow people with disabilities, the mentally ill and the elderly to request the medication.

“What’s unthinkable is where this has happened in other places and what has happened – where this has led to a financial reckoning,” Sen. Brian Pettyjohn, R-Georgetown, said. “‘Well, it’s going to cost you more to treat you than to give you the pill and to put you down. You’re a burden to us. You know you don’t want to be a burden to us, do you? Go ahead and take the pill. Be done.’ That is what’s happened in other places. I don’t want to see that happen in Delaware.”

Townsend argued that legislation would allow terminally ill patients the ability to die with dignity and peace.

“They are looking for the respect of the law and the respect of lawmakers to give them a reasonable option with significant guardrails and consultation with medical professionals,” he said. “What to me is unthinkable is the idea that we would not provide that reasonable system and instead leave them the alternative that people do choose to exercise outside of a framework like this.”

Both newly elected Democratic state Sens. Dan Cruce, D-Wilmington, and Ray Seigfried, D-North Brandywine, voted yes on the bill. Gov. Meyer expressed support for last year’s version of the bill earlier this year.