032174 cn Euthanasia Bill Rejected

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Maryland Senate Committee on Economic Matters unanimously voted to reject an euthanasia bill which would give legal force to what it described as the "right to die with dignity."

State Sen. Julian L. Lapides (D-Baltimore), sponsor of the bill, has asked the committee chairman to bring the bill onto the Senate floor for debate, thus saving the measure from immediate burial,

The proposed bill would give legal status to signed statements by individuals requesting that they be "allowed to die and not be kept alive by artificial means or heroic measures" if there is 'no reasonable expectation" of recovery.

Maryland clergymen have expressed a wide range of responses to the bill. Catholic Cardinal Lawrence Sheehan of Baltimore said he would "be obliged to oppose publicly" the proposed legislation.

United Methodist Bishop James K. Mathews of the Washington area said he was "generally in support" of the measure, but did not like the implications of the term "euthanasia." Episcopal Bishop David K. Leighton of Maryland said he was "very much in favor" of the bill.