PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona lawmakers sent legislation Tuesday to Gov. Doug Ducey that would protect state health care providers and medical facilities from discrimination if they refuse to assist in services or provide items that result in the death of a person.
Senate Bill 1439 by Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, is meant to shield doctors, nurses or medical facilities that choose to exercise personal conscience in not participating in end of life situations.
The full House passed the bill along party lines on a 32-24 vote. The Senate had already approved it on a 16-14 vote earlier this month.
Barto said the bill is important because current laws that safeguard health care providers and institutions are not sufficient.
“Making sure that a physician who exercises their conscience rights in terms of declining to participate in end of life treatments_their job is not at stake and that they are not discriminated against at work,” Barto said.
Proponents of the bill say it would build off of existing laws excusing health care providers from criminal or civil liability for refusing to comply with patient requests when it violates their personal conscience.
Yet critics say it would threaten patients’ rights and could possibly leave them without the ability to fulfill their final wishes if entire health facilities are unwilling to comply.
Rep. Randall Friese, D-Tucson, said people who choose to go into the medical field recognize both the importance of end of life decisions and listening to families as they make those choices.
“I’ve been doing this as I mentioned for 20 years_I haven’t seen an example where this bill would protect a health care bed side care provider,” Friese said. “I’m concerned that it might actually allow a health care facility or insurer to start to insist on offering care that a patient doesn’t wish to have.”
The bill comes after legislation allowing terminally ill adults in Arizona to voluntarily end their lives with medical assistance stalled in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee chaired by Barto last year.
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