Lombardo Says “No” to End-of-Life Bill

The Nevada Legislature has taken up one of those questions that folks tend to tiptoe around like a sleeping dog with a known temper. Assembly Bill 346, a proposal that would allow terminally ill Nevadans to seek medical assistance in ending their lives, made its way to committee this week with all the gravity such a subject deserves.

Governor Joe Lombardo, a man not much given to dancing around the issue, made his position plain as a mule’s tail in a dust storm–he won’t be signing it.

In a statement posted online—where every statement now seems to go, like a bottle bobbing down the river—he wrote, “Expansions in palliative care services and continued improvements in advanced pain management make the end-of-life provisions in AB 346 unnecessary.”

In other words, the Governor says that modern medicine has grown so skilled at keeping folks comfortable near the end that there’s no need to offer a quicker exit.

Whether that comforts or confounds depends on who’s reading.

The bill’s supporters, for their part, argue that dignity is a personal matter, not something from a hospital chart. They say Nevadans facing terminal illness ought to have the right to choose how their story ends—whether with a whisper, a prayer, or a doctor’s careful hand. To them, AB 346 isn’t about giving up—it’s deciding when enough is enough.

Opponents, on the other hand, see the matter through a different lens. Some cite moral reservations, others raise concerns about potential misuse, and others agree with the Governor’s view that medical science has already paved a gentler path.

For now, the bill remains just that—a bill. Whether it gathers steam or stalls in the dry heat of Carson City remains to be seen. But when it comes to questions of life and death, folks tend to bring their whole hearts to the table—and leave with no shortage of opinions.

And as with most matters of state, the Legislature will argue, the public will watch, and time—patient and impartial—will have the final word.