Assisted-suicide bill amendment would bar telehealth use

CARSON CITY — A divided legislative committee on Wednesday moved Nevada’s proposed physician-assisted suicide law to the full Senate for a vote with amendments, one of which would bar the use of telehealth in connection with the law’s provisions.

Senate Bill 165 would permit physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs to legal state residents who have been deemed competent, are at least 18 years old, have a terminal condition diagnosed by two doctors, have made both spoken and written requests to die and can self-administer the drugs. Two people would have to serve as witnesses, one of them not a relative or recipient of any death benefit.

The bill drew lengthy testimony at its initial hearing last month. With no comment Wednesday, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee split 3-2 along party lines to move the bill to the Senate floor with a recommendation to pass it, with Democrats voting in favor.

Besides the telehealth prohibition, two other amendments deal with how details of a person’s death are officially recorded, such as on a death certificate.

Nevada would become the seventh state to permit physician-assisted suicide if the bill prevailed. The same measure failed in 2017, passing the Senate by one vote but dying in an Assembly committee.

Contact Bill Dentzer at bdentzer@ reviewjournal.com or 775-461-0661. Follow @Dentzernews on Twitter.