New Video by Late New Mexico Cabinet Member Urges Legislators to Pass Medical Aid-in-Dying Law on 1st Anniversary of his Death
Former Secretary of Human Services Dept. Bill Johnson Makes Impassioned Plea to Pass End of Life Options Bill in 2021
Oct 29, 2020
Compassion & Choices today released a new video featuring the late Secretary of the New Mexico Human Services Department, Bill Johnson. The video commemorates the first anniversary of Bill’s painful death to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and demonstrates the need for medical aid in dying. To view video, click: HERE.
The video is being released on what would have also been Bill’s 85th birthday and a few months before legislators in New Mexico will once again consider the Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act. The bill would allow mentally capable, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live the option to get a doctor’s prescription for medication they can decide to take to die peacefully if their suffering becomes intolerable. The compassionate bill did not pass during the 2019 New Mexico legislative session.
“If I had just one minute to speak with the legislature, I would try to help them understand there has to be a solution to this prolonged disease that is so, so terrible,” he states in the video recorded in 2019.
Bill was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in 2017. The life-shortening neurodegenerative disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, has no treatment or cure. The illness destroys nerve cells and robs people of their ability to use their hands, to walk, talk, swallow and eventually breathe.
“What people don't understand about medical aid dying is it's something that is an option, that people have choices,” he states in the video. “We're Roman Catholic and those individuals who think it's morally wrong and incorrect, I would try and help them understand how harrowing this disease is, how debilitating, how it takes everything away from you.”
Bill served as New Mexico Secretary of the Human Services Department under Governor Gary Johnson and for more than 20 years as the CEO of University of New Mexico Hospital, the state's only academic medical center and primary teaching hospital for the University of New Mexico's School of Medicine. In addition, he served as a medical service corps officer in the Army.
“Mr. Johnson’s heartbreaking plea is yet another call for legislators to expand end-of-life care options in New Mexico,” said Elizabeth Armijo, National Advocacy Director for Compassion & Choices. “Terminally-ill New Mexicans don’t have time to wait for another legislative session. We urge legislators to pass the Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act in the 2021 session.”
During the 2019 legislative session, the New Mexico Senate Public Affairs Committee approved the bill for consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The House Judiciary and the Health & Human Services Committees also voted to approve the bill for consideration by the full House. Prior to the legislative session, the city councils of Las Cruces, Santa Fe and Albuquerque voted on bipartisan resolutions in support of medical aid in dying.
Sixty-five percent of New Mexicans support medical aid in dying legislation, including fifty-eight percent of New Mexican Catholics. And the vast majority (88%) of voters agree with the statement: “How a terminally ill person chooses to end his/her life should be an individual decision and not a government decision.”
Since Bill’s death two more states have passed medical aid in dying laws. Now, 10 jurisdictions, including Washington, D.C. and nine states authorize this end-of-life care option. The states include: California, Colorado, Hawai‘i, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. Collectively, there are more than 40 years of combined experience implementing this medical practice and more than one out of five Americans (22%) have access to this compassionate option.
