Minnesota lawmakers have a lot to do in a shorter legislative session this year, but supporters of a end of life option invoice hope he gets another look.
The current proposal would allow mentally competent adults with less than six months to live to request, obtain and take medication to die peacefully in their sleep.
Carrie Framsted, a lawyer with the Grand Marais nonprofit Compassion & Choices, said she became the bill’s lawyer after his wife Monica died two years ago. She explained that it became clear that the cancer treatments were too much for Monica to handle.
“She had two wishes, pain management and quality of life, and she had none,” Framsted said.
The House bill has added sponsors in recent weeks, but it’s unclear whether it will get a hearing. There is also an accompanying measure in the Senate. One of the concerns raised by opponents in the past is the possibility of taking advantage of vulnerable people. Proponents countered that there are numerous safeguards and requirements in place, including access to service through approved providers.
Framsted noted that proponents are still working on stigma issues, such as people still referring to the “assisted suicide” option.
“It’s a decision you make with your family, your doctor, with your friends and loved ones, and they’re all with you together,” Framsted stressed.
Other provisions in the bill would allow terminally ill people to withdraw their application if they change their mind at any time, and anyone who tries to coerce a patient would face criminal prosecution. Healthcare providers who participate and comply enjoy civil and criminal immunity.
Similar laws are in place in nearly a dozen other states.
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This week, a South Dakota Senate committee introduced bills aimed at limiting the scope of the death penalty. For years, supporters have pushed for such measures, but as in previous sessions, opponents have voiced concerns.
One of the measures that authorized the committee would be exclude seriously mentally ill defendants to be eligible for the death penalty. Another creates possibilities of parole for lifers aged 18 to 25.
Denny Davis, director of South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, argued that for these individuals, their brains are not fully formed and that a life sentence is equivalent to a death sentence.
“When you go to jail and stay there for the rest of your life, you will die there,” Davis pointed out. “I want to take off this disguise.”
Under the bill, young defendants would still have to serve at least 25 years before parole is considered. To address the concerns of prosecutors, the provision no longer applies to first degree murder. Prosecutors have opposed the mental illness measure, saying it creates procedural problems in death penalty cases.
Continuing his group’s efforts to enact change, Davis wondered why a state deemed “pro-life” would still go along with capital punishment.
“We have to come together and decide together what’s right and what’s wrong,” Davis insisted.
South Dakota has administered 20 executions in state history, the last in 2019. There have been four more since 2012, but none before, dating back to the late 1970s when capital punishment has been restored.
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Idaho lawmakers are considering a bill that repeal restrictions on banned private militias. Paramilitary actions such as marching in public are prohibited under a 1927 state law.
Private militias are also prohibited under the Idaho Constitution, which states that the military is subordinate to the civil power: the governor and the legislature.
Adrienne Evans, executive director of United Vision for Idaho, said the bill would set a dangerous precedent at a time when the country is bitterly divided and could embolden anti-government armed groups in the state.
“Exerting their minority influence over the barrel of a gun is not the kind of thing I think anyone sent our legislature for,” Evans asserted. “People want our systems to work for us. They don’t want rogue actors destroying a system and putting our whole system at risk.”
Maj. Steve Stokes, general counsel for the Idaho military division, introduced the bill and said his agency identified the repeal of the provision as part of the governor’s red tape reduction act. Brad Little. Stokes argued that the law is outdated. In support of the bill, a spokesperson for Little said he was a “strong supporter of First and Second Amendment rights.”
Although the open carry of firearms is permitted in Idaho, Stokes acknowledged that the bill does not violate the First or Second Amendments. According to a report from the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law, every state in the country has a constitutional provision or state law prohibiting private militias.
Evans pointed out that paramilitary groups have become normalized and even integrated.
“But we can’t afford that to happen,” Evans argued. “We have to maintain the code. We have to maintain the social fabric. We have to maintain our moral and ethical standards.”
In a public hearing on Wednesday, Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad declared his opposition to the bill, saying it could endanger public safety as well as law enforcement. He described a scene from 2020 when high school students in Sandpoint supporting the Black Lives Matter movement were overrun by heavily armed paramilitary groups.
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A proposal presented to the Boston City Council would create a commission to study the legacy of slavery and the continuing inequalities black people face in Massachusetts, and to develop proposals for reparations.
Boston could be the latest of a growing number of cities to explore ways to undo the damage caused by racism in their communities. Tammy Tai — deputy director of the nonprofit King Boston — noted that Amherst and Cambridge are the top two in Massachusetts, and she hopes Boston follows suit.
She said reparations can take many forms, from payments to individuals to holistic education in schools or home ownership programs.
“It starts first with an acknowledgment of what happened to the black community in Boston,” Tai said, “which of course is a reflection and a microcosm of what black people in America have gone through.”
She noted that Evanston, Illinois was the first city to adopt a system of reparations, in the form of housing subsidies of up to $25,000. Tai said housing may not be the right approach for Boston, but if the proposal is accepted, the commission will consider options.
Tai added that there is sometimes a misconception that Boston being a northern city, repairs are not necessary. But she recalls that Massachusetts was initially one of the main trading colonies.
And today, white Boston residents are more likely to own homes — and to have checking or savings accounts and retirement funds — than black, brown and Indigenous residents.
“So even though slavery was abolished before the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery still touched lives here in the city,” Tai said. “And then Jim Crow touched the lives of black people in the city and the continuing inequity. So for a northern city to recognize that and grapple with that is extremely important for the country.”
At the United States House, a bill for national reparations – HR 40 – was first introduced over 30 years ago, but failed to pass through the chamber. Tai said while local reparations are important, state and federal action is also needed.
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