Ten states and Washington D.C. currently support medical aid in dying for terminally-ill patients. Advocates and lawmakers like Public Health Committee Co-Chair and State Sen. Dr. Saud Anwar are hoping Connecticut is closer than ever to becoming the eleventh state to adopt a medical aid-in-dying law.
Connecticut Public health reporter Sujata Srinivasan spoke with Sen. Anwar about the plan to include additional restrictions around age limits and physician sign-offs, that he hopes will help the bill pass the Judiciary Committee, where a similar bill stopped last session.
Aid-in-dying bills have been proposed in Connecticut more than a dozen times over the last thirty years.
Longtime NPR host and journalist Diane Rehm has touched on her mother's death and her late husband's battle with Parkinson's Disease, setting out to explore the issue of patient autonomy in her book, When My Time Comes: Conversations About Whether Those Who Are Dying Should Have the Right to Determine When Life Should End.
This hour, Rehm and Srinivasan will join us to discuss the right-to-die movement where we live, along with CT News Junkie editor-in-chief Christine Stuart. Plus, a preview of the biennial state budget with Stuart and News 12 political reporter John Craven.
GUESTS:
- Diane Rehm: Host, On My Mind with Diane Rehm; Author, When My Time Comes: Conversations About Whether Those Who Are Dying Should Have the Right To Determine When Life Should End
- Sujata Srinivasan: Health Reporter, Connecticut Public
- Anita Hannig: Cultural Anthropologist; Author, The Day I Die: The Untold Story of Assisted Dying in America
- Christine Stuart: Editor-in-Chief, CT News Junkie
- John Craven: Political Reporter, News 12 Connecticut
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