Senate panel OKs ‘narrow’ conscience law fix

The Senate State Affairs Committee has voted along party lines to approve HB 187, the “narrow” fix to  last year’s “conscience” law to clarify that physicians can’t violate people’s living wills or end-of-life directives as they die, despite testimony against the bill from several seniors, the AARP and the chaplain and operator of Treasure Valley Hospice, Clark Limb. Only the committee’s two Democrats, Sens. Edgar Malepeai, D-Pocatello, and Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, voted against the bill, which already has passed the House.

Sen. Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, commented that the AARP had “ginned up” its members to oppose the measure, then apologized for that remark. He said last year’s health care conscience law, which permits any health care provider to refuse to provide any treatment that violates the provider’s conscience if it has to do with abortion, emergency contraception or end-of-life care, hasn’t yet led to any incidents in which patients’ living wills have been violated. “If it does, then I think it behooves us as a Legislature to look at those specific examples and see if the legislation then needs to be modified,” Davis said. “For many of the proponents of this legislation, for them it impacts not just the end of life care of those individuals, those patients that they are serving, but it has eternal consequences as they evaluate it.”

Limb, the hospice chaplain and operator, said after the committee hearing, “I understand his concern that the caregiver has to face themselves in the mirror on the choices they make. But my concern, is there still exists an opportunity for someone to interfere with people’s choices.” He said, “In my line of work as a chaplain, I run into people who have very deep religious feelings about the next life. It just seems so morally wrong to let someone interfere with their desires.” Said Limb, “These people we’re talking about are not choosing to die. That choice has been taken away by the disease. They don’t have that choice. Their choice is the quality of their life as they approach the end of life.”

Limb said a change to the bill proposed unsuccessfully in the House - to add “any other health care provider” in addition to physicians in the bill - would have made the bill better. But overall, he said he agreed with the AARP that legislation regarding people’s end-of-life choices doesn’t belong in a criminal statute about abortion, and that’s not something HB 187 would change. The bill now moves to the full Senate.