WASHINGTON – The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of state right-to-life affiliates and local chapters, together with its affiliate, Nevada Right to Life, applauded Governor Brian Sandoval for his opposition to a measure that would legalize physician assisted suicide in the state of Nevada.

“We applaud Governor Sandoval for speaking the truth about Senate Bill 261 said Melissa Clement, president of Nevada Right to Life. “While proponents say this bill is about ‘compassionate aid-in-dying,’ the truth is this bill would legalize doctor-prescribed suicide in Nevada. We thank Governor Sandoval for drawing a line in the sand to help stop this deadline measure.”

 The Nevada bill is modeled after Oregon, which, in 1994, became the first state in the nation to legalize doctor-prescribed suicide. Proponents argue that such laws are necessary to provide “compassionate aid in dying for terminally ill patients,” and point to safeguards similar to Oregon, but the rhetoric obfuscates the real truth.

There are no real safeguards. It is a well-established fact that nearly every terminally ill patient who desires death is suffering from treatable depression. In Oregon, fewer than 6% of patients have been referred for psychiatric evaluation before obtaining life-ending drugs. Rather than treat clinically depressed patients, the Oregon system, and the system that would be established by the Nevada bill, indicates that you instead help the patients kill themselves.

“National Right to Life commends Governor Sandoval for standing up for the elderly, medically dependent and disabled, and the terminally ill who would be targeted by Senate Bill 261,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “Unlike proponents of the measure, we firmly believe that we must not go down a path that views human life as nothing more than an expendable commodity.”