EXCESS 8 ADDIS

Hospice social worker Kenneth Hicken, left, and hospice nurse Bill Memmott, center, meet with patient Bill Roggman, right, who has colon cancer, at Roggman's home in West Valley City, Utah in this file photo. State lawmakers in New Jersey are trying again to pass legislation that would permit physicians to write prescriptions that would allow terminally ill patients to end their lives. (NOAH ADDIS | THE STAR-LEDGER)

(This story has been updated to include Senate President Stephen Sweeney's statements that he plans to be a sponsor of the bill.)

TRENTON -- For the third time in six years, state lawmakers have introduced legislation that would permit a doctor to write a prescription that would help a patient with a terminal illness commit suicide.

New Jersey would join California, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Vermont if the "Aid in Dying or the Terminally Ill Act" is eventually signed into law.

State lawmakers first introduced an assisted suicide bill during the 2012-13 legislative session. They have never mustered enough support among their colleagues to overcome their own personal misgivings about the issue, or have not wanted to tangle with leaders in the religious and disabilities communities who have opposed it.

"No matter how much proponents try to portray their support for this misguided bill as compassionate, the reality is that it is anything but," said Marie Tasy, executive director for New Jersey Right to Life. "The legislation is deeply flawed and will place the lives of our most vulnerable populations at risk of misdiagnosis, coercion and abuse."

Public opinion favors physician-assisted suicide, or "aid in dying" as it is known in New Jersey.

A Rutgers-Eagleton poll last year found nearly two-thirds of people in the state agreed it is "morally acceptable" for terminally ill people to choose to take their own lives, and would support a state law letting these patients obtain a lethal prescription to help them die.

Similarly, 63 percent of people polled said it was morally acceptable for terminally ill patients to end their lives to relieve their suffering, 32 percent said it was "morally wrong" and 5 percent said they did not know, according to the random telephone survey in February 2015.

"Aid in dying is about alleviating suffering and empowering those who are terminally ill to make their own health care decisions at the end of life," Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), the bill's senate sponsor, said in a statement released by the national advocacy group lobbying for these laws, Compassion & Choices.

"Aid in dying works as intended in other states where it is authorized, and has been shown to improve overall end-of-life health care by promoting more candid end-of-life conversations between patients, families and physicians," according to Scutari's statement.

Compassion & Choices is the group behind right-to-die laws in the country, including a campaign featuring Brittany Maynard, the 29-year-old woman from California with terminal brain cancer who went public with her story before her death in 2014. Maynard and her husband moved to Oregon so she could end her suffering before the pain became too overwhelming.

The "Aid in Dying or the Terminally Ill Act" defines a terminal illness as an incurable, irreversible and medically confirmed disease that will end the person's life within six months.

Patients suffering from a terminal disease who want to end their lives would have to first verbally request a prescription from their attending physician, followed by a second request at least 15 days later and one request in writing signed by two witnesses, according to the bill (S2474). The patient's physician would have to offer the patient a chance to rescind their request, and a consulting physician would then be called upon to certify the original diagnosis and reaffirm the patient is capable of making a decision.

Scutari is the lone senator sponsor. But on Tuesday, Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), said he plans to join Scutari and lobby his colleagues for the bill's passage.

"It's a very personal issue with members. You talk to them one day and they are for it and the next day they are against it because it is such a personal decision," Sweeney said. "But I think giving people the ability to make the decision at the end of life when it is their life, is the decent thing to do."

Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester) is the lead sponsor in the Assembly, with Assemblymen Tim Eustace (D-Bergen) and Joe Danielson (D-Somerset).

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.