After narrowly passing the Nevada Senate by a single vote in April, a bill seeking to legalize assisted suicide in the state was vetoed on Monday by Governor Joe Lombardo.

 In his veto message, Gov. Lombardo insisted that while “end-of-life decisions are never easy,” the legalization of doctor-assisted suicide is unnecessary due to “expansions in palliative care services and continued improvements in advanced pain management.”

If passed, Senate Bill 239, also known as the “death with dignity bill,” not only would have allowed terminally ill patients over the age of 18 to request euthanasia but would have imposed upon those in the medical industry to participate in facilitating these deaths.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Denise Burke commended the Nevada Governor’s decision, stressing that “Every life is sacred and has inherent value.”

“Physician-assisted suicide is neither compassionate nor an appropriate solution for those who are suffering—it ends an innocent human life without justification,” Burke underscored. “Furthermore, many bills that legalize physician-assisted suicide, including Senate Bill 239, violate the rights of conscience of health care professionals by forcing them to participate in ending the lives of their patients. The state shouldn’t order them to act contrary to their duty to act as healers. That’s why we commend Gov. Lombardo for vetoing this dangerous legislation.”

“Thanks to him, the integrity of the medical profession and the rights of conscience for health care professionals will not be violated by the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in Nevada,” the ADF Senior Counsel applauded.

“Doctors prescribe medicine, not death,” Burke concluded.

RECOMMENDED: Is Euthanasia a Biblical Solution to Terminal Illness or Suffering?

While the arguments favoring assisted suicide are cloaked in compassion, the legalization of euthanasia consistently promotes a loss of natural affection within a society.

In Canada, where Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) has been legal since 2016, approximately 40,000 lives have been prematurely ended. In addition, a disturbing poll recently released found that nearly 1/3 of Canadians believe euthanasia should be open for the poor and homeless, with half of Canadians feeling it should be offered to disabled people.

Writing for National Review, Wesley Smith reported on the Nevada Governors’ veto, writing: “Assisted suicide isn’t only unnecessary, it is profoundly dangerous. Once we decide to eliminate suffering by eliminating the sufferer, we open a Pandora’s box of continual killing expansion — as in Canada — to death on demand — as in Germany.”

The apostle Paul wrote that the last days would be characterized by a “loss of natural affection” within society (2 Timothy 3:1-3). While this “culture of death” permeates our world, the restraining hand of God is still at work, hindering the “progress” of the godless.

2 Thessalonians 2: 7-8 – “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:”