ID governor asks legislature to revisit bill

Bill impacts end-of-life decisions

Compassion & Choices, an advocacy group for "aid in dying" at the end of life, reports that Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, in a letter to the Idaho Senate, encouraged the legislature to revisit a particular bill.

The bill will authorize health care workers to ignore the wishes of terminally ill patients, according to Compassion & Choices.

The group hailed the governor's "concern for honoring decisions within living will and powers of attorney concerning end-of-life treatment." However, the group expressed disappointment that the governor allowed the legislation to become law without signing it.

According to Compassion & Choices, S1353 could "potentially affect end-of-life care by removing the patient's own decision-making and putting the decision in the hands of health care professions, who, based on their own religious or moral beliefs, could choose, or choose not to, follow certain end-of-life directives determined by the patient.

Compassion & Choices President Barbara Coombs Lee said the bill would "protect doctors, nurses, and other health care workers who refuse to treat pain and suffering of a dying patient, if they believe in the redemptive power of suffering."

"If a professional's faith dictates individuals should face death while conscious, they could refuse to provide the treatment known as 'palliative sedation' . . . ," Lee said.