Backers of aid-in-dying legislation planning push this session
More than eight years into her cancer diagnosis, the pain in Kim Hoffman’s body had become constant.
“I can’t remember the last day that I did not experience pain,” Hoffman, 59, of Glastonbury, said in a recent interview. “It has been at least two months of daily, very often intense, sharp, biting pain.
“I’ve awoken from sleep in pain every night, multiple times. Three o’clock in the morning is a standing hour for me — three o’clock and four o’clock in the morning I can always count on waking up in discomfort or pain.”
In 2013, she was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer. During the following years, it spread throughout her body. She was given two to four months to live last fall.
She died on Jan. 18.
In an interview with the CT Mirror just weeks before her death, Hoffman used some of her remaining strength to call for passage of an aid in dying bill, poised to be a key issue when the state legislature convenes in February. She wished the option had been available to her.
“I am advocating for our legislators to show compassion, kindness, care and sensitivity to those of us who face a terminal diagnosis,” she said. “It is kind and compassionate. It is a choice. It is not forced on anybody.
“It would give me such a sense of relief and peace. And I should say, it would give my family a sense of relief and peace as well, knowing I’m comforted by that.”
For the first time, a version of Connecticut’s aid in dying bill made it out of committee in 2021. The Public Health Committee voted 24-9 in favor of sending the measure to the House floor.
The bill did not come up for a vote in either chamber, however. It didn’t make it out of the Judiciary Committee.
Under last year’s proposal, an adult patient with a terminal illness — having six months or less to live — would have been able to access lethal drugs by making two oral requests at least 15 days apart, and one written request. The written request would have to be done in the presence of two witnesses who could attest that the patient is of sound mind and acting voluntarily.
A physician would prescribe or dispense the medication, and the patient would self-administer the drug. Requests for the medication may be rescinded by the patient at any time “without regard to his or her mental state,” according to the measure. A doctor would have to refer the patient to another consulting physician for medical confirmation of the person’s diagnosis and for confirmation that the patient is competent and acting voluntarily.
Although three Republicans joined 21 Democrats in supporting the bill last year, several members of the health committee acknowledged that the bill needed work.
As the 2022 session nears, proponents of the measure say they have incorporated the needed revisions and will press for a vote in the House.
“We came very close last year,” said Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, a co-chair of the Public Health Committee. “We have looked at the polling statewide, which indicates that the majority of Connecticut citizens are in favor of this. I think we made adjustments to the bill coming out of the committee and hearing processes that will make it have good prospects.”
A high priority
Steinberg and other leaders on the health committee have marked the proposal “No. 1” in terms of importance during the upcoming session, he said.
“We’d like to get ready to go earlier rather than later so it doesn’t become a victim of priorities and the clock ticking out,” Steinberg said. “That’s our objective: Get it ready to go out the door and ready for a vote as quickly as possible.”
He and other proponents have pointed to polling by Compassion and Choices, an advocacy group that supports the legislation, showing 75 percent of Connecticut residents surveyed back the proposal. The organization polled 550 “likely 2022 general election voters” in March 2021.
A Quinnipiac University poll in 2015 found that 63 percent of voters supported the bill.
Aid in dying is legal in Oregon, Washington state, Montana, Vermont, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, Maine, New Mexico and the District of Columbia.
“For us, it’s not a question of if the law will pass, it’s a question of when,” said Tim Appleton, senior campaign director with Compassion and Choices. “This issue has been before members of the public health committee on several occasions, and there was a tipping point of education, when people really began to understand exactly what this issue is about. People should have options — all options — at end of life, and aid in dying should be one of them.”