A proposal to change the waiting period in Maine's "Death with Dignity" law won initial support in the House on Wednesday following emotional debate from both supporters and opponents.

Maine's roughly 5-year-old "Death with Dignity" law requires terminally ill patients to wait at least 17 days between their first request for a fatal dose of medication and when a doctor writes out that prescription. Some patients choose to never use the drugs. But according to Rep. Michele Meyer, D-Eliot, at least nine of the more than 200 patients who have availed themselves of the law died during that 17-day period.

The Maine House voted 74-64 on Wednesday to advance a bill sponsored by Meyer, LD 613, that would allow doctors to waive some or all of that waiting period if they deem it to be "in the best

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