Bill would punish those who assist in suicide in Georgia

A health care professional who helps someone commit suicide could face one to 10 years in prison, lose his or her license to practice and be sued by the family of the dead person under a bill filed by legislators.

Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, is the primary sponsor of House Bill 1114, which seeks to redress a state Supreme Court ruling striking down Georgia's assisted suicide law.  The unanimous ruling said Georgia's law is unconstitutional because it does not prohibit all assisted suicides, but rather criminalizes only those in which someone advertises or offers to assist in a suicide and then takes steps to help carry it out. The reasoning was that it violated the right to free speech.

The ruling freed from criminal charges four members of the Final Exit Network, charged in Forsyth County in connection with the 2008 suicide of a man who killed himself after he had been diagnosed with cancer.