euthanasia

The patient must be an adult (18 or over) resident of the state of Washington The patient must be mentally competent, verified by two physicians (or referred to a mental health evaluation) The patient must be terminally ill with less than 6 months to live, verified by two physicians. The patient must make voluntary requests, without coercion, verified by two physicians The patient must be informed of all other options including palliative and hospice care There is a 15 day waiting period between the first oral request and a written request There is a 48 hour waiting period between the written request and the writing of the prescription The written request must be signed by two independent witnesses, at least one of whom is not related to the patient or employed by the health care facility The patient is encouraged to discuss with family (not required because of confidentiality laws) The patient may change their mind at any time and rescind the request

YES ON I-1000: IT'S MY DECISION A YES vote FOR I-1000 allows mentally competent, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to receive – under strict safeguards – a prescription for life-ending medication. This choice belongs exclusively to the terminally ill individual. Government, politicians, religious groups and others should not dictate these personal decisions.

Physician-assisted suicide occurs when a physician facilitates a patient’s death by providing the necessary means and/or information to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act… allowing physicians to participate in assisted suicide would cause more harm than good. Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.

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Euthanasia is the act of deliberately bringing about a death for humane reasons. Voluntary euthanasia is euthanasia at the patient’s request. Involuntary euthanasia is euthanasia against the patient’s request. Non-voluntary euthanasia is euthanasia where the patient has not made a request either way.

Active euthanasia is killing for humane reasons. Passive euthanasia is letting die for humane reasons.

Martin says he's decidedly undecided about how to vote on Initiative As a doctor, he struggles with the notion that physicians should play a role in speeding up the dying process. Kevin Martin: "Most of the doctors I know don’t want to play God, they don't want to give the appearance of playing God and I think that a lot of the discomfort I feel is that in a very real sense this initiative puts physicians in that position." Martin's conflicted feelings mirror surveys in Washington State and nationally — physicians are generally divided on the issue…

Oregon became the first state to legalize assisted suicide in part by highlighting so-called "safeguards" like the requirement that people have a "terminal disease" -- the prediction by two doctors that "within reasonable medical judgment" a person would die inside six months. But even at six months, the death knell of "terminal" was arbitrary and approximate. Studies have shown that 15 to 20 percent of the supposedly "terminally ill" outlive their prognosis, leading to our current situation whereby six-month hospice programs discharge 200,000 people yearly for living too long! … Under the new proposal, it is guaranteed that innocent people would lose years of their lives under the mistaken belief they were dying when they were not.

Initiative 1000 is not good for Washington. It requires that we naively assign the most altruistic motives to all the parties involved… Suicide is not the answer to human suffering. If I-1000 were to become law there would no logical defense against active euthanasia. If I-1000 were to become law why wait until a person had six months to live? Why not one year? Or why wait until you have a disease — after all, life is full of trials and tribulations and none of us makes it out of here alive.