Assisted suicide ban passes Senate

Assisting someone in committing suicide would become a felony in Georgia under a bill passed Tuesday by the state Senate.

House Bill 1114 was introduced in the wake of a Georgia Supreme Court decision that struck down Georgia's previous assisted-suicide law as unconstitutional.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, has said he took great pains to make sure that typical end-of-life medical decisions, such as withholding food in terminal cases, are not affected by the law. He said it only would affect those who take specific actions to help someone kill themselves.