The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony Monday on the Community Defense Act and on the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act.

The first would regulate the location and operation of adult-themed businesses on a state-wide basis.  The second would seek to clarify the wishes of persons in the final stages of life.

Proponents of the Community Defense Act argued the regulations would help alleviate some of the secondary negative impacts of these businesses.

“Sexually-oriented businesses and their toxic effects on the community are real,” said Phillip Cosby, the executive director of the Kansas City Office for the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families.

Cosby dismissed fears that the bill may not pass constitutional muster by pointing out a Community Defense Act had been passed in Ohio and had been upheld as constitutional.

Wichita-based attorney Charles O’Hara spoke as an opponent to the bill. O’Hara said he had worked as an attorney defending adult businesses for more than 30 years and argued this is an issue that can and should be regulated on a local level rather than a state level.

“I don’t have any idea of what the purpose of this is,” O’Hara said. “I can’t see any reason not to let the local communities decide.”

The bill is HB 2144.

The House Judiciary Committee also heard testimony on HB 2109 which would seek to eliminate any ambiguity of a person’s wishes for when they are in an end-of-life state. The legislation would set in motion the Kansas Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act which was recommended by the Kansas Judicial Council and drafted by the Council’s End of Life Decisions Advisory Committee. 

The act would create guidelines for how to deal with a person’s wishes and would seek to alleviate any doubt of a person’s intentions of how they want to be treated while in an end-of life situation, such as if a person ended up in a vegetative state.

“This is a compromise that represents a consensus among people with widely differing views of how we should treat end of life issues,” said Tony Powell, District Court Judge for the Eighteenth district.

HB 2109 was recommended by the Kansas Judicial Council. Several other proponents testified on behalf of the bill, including representatives of the Kansas Board of Emergency Medical Services, and the Kansas Medical Society. 

No opponents appeared to testify against the bill.

- Holly Smith

Resources:

• House Bill 2144 http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2010/2144.pdf
• House Bill 2109 http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2010/2109.pdf

The Week in Review