Gardner revives discussion about assisted suicide

By None, Longview Daily News, Jan. 22, 2008

Former Gov. Booth Gardner wants to give voters an opportunity to follow Oregon's lead, making Washington the second state in the nation to allow terminally ill citizens to legally end their lives. Gardner earlier this month launched a signature drive to put a physician-assisted suicide law before voters next fall.

Washington voters rejected an assisted suicide initiative in 1991. But it differed from the initiative Gardner is proposing in at least one very significant way. The '91 initiative would have allowed physicians to administer the fatal dose of drugs. Gardner's proposal is modeled after the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which does not allow doctors to administer the lethal drugs. Physicians may assist only by prescribing the drugs.

Washingtonians might well be inclined to take a fresh look at physician-assisted suicide. Much as occurred in the more than 16 years since the defeat of the 1991 initiative. Oregon's ground-breaking assisted-suicide law - first approved by voters in 1994 and overwhelmingly approved again three years later with the rejection of an attempt to repeal the law - has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. More significantly, a decade's worth of experience with the Oregon law has put to rest some of the more alarmist predictions as to how such a law might be misused.

Indeed, Oregon's Death with Dignity Act has strong protections against poor, mentally ill or socially isolated patients being pressured into taking their lives. So does Gardner's proposed initiative. Like Oregon's law, it would pertain only to terminally ill patients with less than six months to live. Two doctors would have to confirm that diagnosis and agree that the patient is competent, informed and acting voluntarily.

In practice, such precautions appear to have served their purpose in Oregon. Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law has been used sparingly, with just over 200 Oregonians taking their own lives under the law since 1998. Studies of the law's use have found that hospice patients who request physician-assisted suicide generally enjoyed close support from family members and did not show signs of depression or worry that they could become a burden on their families. People opting for assisted suicide under the law generally were found to be well-educated and well-insured. Worries about money played essentially no role in their decision.

Interestingly, one study found that just 10 percent of those patients who asked a doctor for help in dying ultimately died by assisted suicide. Researchers speculated that this was because request for help in dying frequently prompted changes in a patient's care to improve pain control or refer the patient to hospice care or a counselor.

Of course, Washington voters might remain wary of following Oregon's lead. The notion of allowing physician-assisted suicide understandably troubles many people. It remains a very controversial issue. But, 10 years after Oregon's law took effect, this is an issue worthy of a statewide conversation. Gardner's campaign to get a physician-assisted suicide law on the November ballot should prompt that discussion.

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