The Montana House Judiciary Committee today rejected HB 637, a bill with bipartisan support which would have codified dying Montanans’ right to medical aid in dying, in an 11-9 vote. HB 637 is the first medical aid-in-dying bill introduced in the Big Sky State since 2011.

“We are so grateful that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle came together to honor the 83% of Montana voters who support the compassionate option of medical aid in dying for people who are terminally ill,” said Chris Riley, Senior State Campaign Manager for Compassion & Choices Action Network. “Compassion & Choices has been working in the state since 2007 to give this compassionate option for terminally ill Montanans. Sadly, other legislators are focused on rolling back the end-of-life rights of their constituents by criminalizing this end-of-life option, not authorizing it.”

The vote comes after a public hearing before the committee Wednesday, which was marked with supportive testimony by physicians, hospice and palliative care nurses and practitioners, current and former caretakers, people who are terminally ill, and other passionate advocates – including Missoula’s Roberta King (Bob Baxter’s daughter), Henry Seaton, representing the ACLU of Montana, and Maurika Moore, representing Hestia Home Advantage, a Missoula-based home hospice and palliative care provider. 

Though the bill was not passed out of the committee, representatives from both parties commented in favor of HB 637 Wednesday. “Medical aid in dying is not a partisan issue, it is a freedom of choice,” said primary sponsor Rep. Julie Darling (R-84), reminding her colleagues of the bill’s bipartisan support and sharing her own emotional experience witnessing her sister die before she was able to use the option.   

Advocate Dave Cooper, of Jefferson City, shared of his late wife’s diagnosis with ALS and the extreme breakthrough pain that palliative care medications could not relieve before she died in 2023. 

“For people who wish to end their pain and suffering, medical aid in dying offers the most peaceful and least traumatic of many options,” Cooper testified. “People who have raised concerns about how these decisions are made and carried out should welcome the clarity this bill provides.”

“Since 2009, I have consistently appeared before this committee to not deny terminally ill loved ones the right to access medical aid in dying in the face of unbearable pain and suffering,” testified longtime Sheridan advocate Doris Fischer, whose partner Dick died of ALS in 2009 without the option of medical aid in dying. “I celebrate – Dick would celebrate – the careful treatment of medical aid in dying lined out in HB 637.”

Terminally Ill Montanans have had access to a peaceful death through medical aid in dying for 15 years as a result of the 2009 landmark Baxter v. Montana Supreme Court ruling which found that criminalizing the end-of-life care option was unconstitutional. 

However, a bill to overturn this ruling by charging doctors with homicide for prescribing aid-in-dying medication to their terminally ill patients (SB 136) is making its way through the legislature and currently awaits a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee. SB 136 disregards the will of a staggering near 90% of Montana voters who oppose the criminalization of physicians who prescribe the compassionate end-of-life care option. 

Medical aid in dying is authorized in 9 other states and Washington, D.C., representing more than one out of five U.S. residents (22%). Oregon was the first state to implement the medical practice over 25 years ago in 1997.

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