The bill is the result of a nearly ten-year push from retiring State Rep. Paul S. Baumbach

Aug 19, 2024

After a nearly ten-year fight, an openly humanist member of the Delaware State House is on the verge of having his monumental “death with dignity” bill become law. But there is one more obstacle standing in the way.

HB 140 would allow terminally ill people to end life on their own terms, subject to approval from medical professionals. It was sponsored by State Rep. Paul S. Baumbach of Newark, a Democrat who has served in office since 2012 and recently announced his retirement. Baumbach is also a self-described “Unitarian Universalist humanist,” according to his 2022 endorsement from the Center for Freethought Equality.

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This kind of bill tends to divide people between those with compassion… and those who make excuses (usually religious ones) for why people should be forced to prolong their suffering. The Delaware bill would only apply to people who have less than six months to life, are capable of making an informed decision, and are acting voluntarily. Two doctors would also have to sign off on all of that.

Baumbach said the bill includes a number of safeguards, including ensuring patients are self-administering the medication, moral objection opt-outs for medical providers, waiting periods and mandatory mental health evaluations. 

Baumbach made it clear that no medical professional who opposes this procedure would have to participate in it, while putting those sensible guardrails in place so that patients wouldn’t be coerced into making a permanent decision against their will.

In order to go through with it, assuming all the other boxes are checked, the patient would to make two oral requests for the lethal medicine, then a written request, then get that written request signed by two witnesses, then wait at least 48 hours before the attending physician can prescribe the drugs. In other words, there are lots of hurdles along the way. This is meant to be a last resort for patients with no other options available to them, not a first resort for the desperate.

It’s the humane approach for people whose only path forward involves unimaginable suffering.

Right now, only 10 states have similar end-of-life laws, yet a recent Gallup poll found that a convincing majority of Americans support these interventions regardless of the terminology used to describe them:

Yet plenty of religious conservatives oppose it. They argue that taking your own life, no matter the reason, is an affront to God and that you must let nature run its course—even when you’re terminally ill, in constant pain, and have no hope for recovery. They think the God who inflicted that pain upon you should be allowed to torture you as long as He wants. The Diocese of Wilmington, on the side of prolonging the suffering, issued a statement saying “there is no justification to take an innocent life.”

That position could not be more cruel.

We’re not talking about people who are having fits of depression or who want to end their lives on a whim. We’re talking about patients whose lives aren’t going to get any better. There’s no cure for what ails them. Doctors can attest to that. Those patients should have the right to end life on their own terms, having said their goodbyes, without anyone getting punished for it.

Still, the bill’s path to becoming a law was never going to be a simple one. Baumbach had been proposing this legislation since 2015 but it never even came up for a floor vote until this year.

It passed in the House on a 21-16 vote back in April (the bare minimum for passage given four absences), but in June, the bill hit a logjam in the Senate. Every Republican and three Democrats voted against it, resulting in a 9-9 tie. Even one of the Democrats who co-sponsored the bill “tearfully declined” to vote on it. But because of a strategic move, the bill was allowed to be reconsidered the following week… and that’s when it finally passed on an 11-10 vote. (The no votes came from every Republican and four Democrats, but there were enough Democrats to pass it.)

The bill now awaits the signature of Democratic Gov. John Carney. But even that presents one more hurdle because no one seems to know what he’ll do.

Compassion & Choices, a group that’s been advocating for this legislation, is urging Carney to sign the bill immediately.

“I urge Gov. Carney to honor the courageous advocacy of Ron Silverio, Heather Block, and the existing pleas of terminally ill constituents like Judy Govatos and Diane Kraus who simply desire this time-tested option so that they can die peacefully on their own terms,” said Kim Callinan, president and CEO of Compassion & Choices Action Network, which led the campaign to pass the bill. “Even if this is not an end-of-life care option that Gov. Carney would choose for himself, the data shows that as drafted, this bill harms nobody; I hope he will respect the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Delaware voters and physicians who support this legislation and allow the Delaware End of Life Option Act to become law.”

So why hasn’t the bill been signed given that it passed the previous legislative hurdle in late June?

Technically speaking, Carney has 10 days to sign or veto the bill once it arrives at his desk. If he does nothing, it becomes law automatically. If Carney vetoes it, though, the Democrats do not appear to have the numbers to override his wishes.

Reports from early July suggested it was unclear if the legislation had officially come across his desk. Was this some weird technical glitch or was someone just delaying a decision?

Baumbach’s office told me last week that the bill is currently sitting in the office of the chief clerk of the State House and that the governor’s office “has not yet requested it.” The ten-day clock only begins after that request comes in.

What if he never requests it, though? Delaware House rules say that all passed legislation must go to the governor 14 days before the November election.

All of that’s to say: The governor’s going to have to make a decision eventually. It’s up to him whether to do it now… or wait it out another three months. Given that Carney is term-limited and not up for re-election—he’s now running for mayor of Wilmington—there’s no good political reason for him to avoid doing the right thing here. It’s not like signing the bill would seriously hurt his mayoral election chances.

Let’s hope he signs it. If and when that happens, it’ll be the result of a years-long campaign by a secular politician who had one final chance to pass this legislation before leaving office. Baumbach did as much as he could do. Because of his fight, people who are struggling to survive against their will may finally be able to find peace on their own terms.