More Information about Assisted Suicide - Washington's I-1000

Answers to Questions about the proposed initiative for assisted suicide. All information from: http://noassistedsuicide.com/qanda.html

"Q. What would the proposed initiative do?
A. Assisted suicide would be legal if the initiative passes, allowing doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to terminally ill patients so they can use it to commit suicide.

Q. Who is opposed to Initiative 1000? A. A broad-based group called the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide is leading the effort to stop Initiative 1000. The Coalition includes people with disabilities, doctors, nurses, hospice workers, minorities, and religious groups.

Q. Why do Washington doctors and hospice workers oppose I-1000?
A. The Washington State Medical Association (the state affiliate of the AMA) and the Washington Hospice and Palliative Care Organization do not support assisted suicide. Doctors are asked to prescribe lethal drug overdoses and to falsify death certificates. Lethal drugs can be given to people who are depressed or mentally ill.

Q. How does America's broken health care system make assisted suicide dangerous?
A. Our health care delivery system has many problems. Low-income and minority patients often receive inadequate care. If I-1000 passes, people may feel forced into ending their lown life prematurely to save themselves or their families from skyrocketing medical costs. America's health care system is sick, but encouraging terminally ill patients to kill themselves is not the cure.

Q. What do proponents mean when they say I-1000 is only the "first step?"
A. Initiative 1000 has received most of its funding from out-of-state special interest groups who have worked for decades to legalize assisted suicide in America. These groups want to legalize assisted suicide for everyone - not just the terminally ill. The New York Times (12/2/07) said, "[Booth] Gardner's campaign is a compromise; he sees it as a first step. If he can sway Washington to embrace a restrictive law, then other states will follow. And gradually, he says, the nation's resistance will subside, the culture will shift and laws with more latitude will be passed..."

Q. Haven't voters rejected this law before?
A. Twenty-five states have defeated bills and/or initiatives aimed at legalizing assisted suicide. In Washington, a similar law was proposed in 1991 and defeated by voters, 54% to 46%.

Q. Won't the assisted suicide prescriptions be closely monitored?
A. No. Unlike the stringent monitoring of medical procedures, the assisted suicide prescriptions would have inadequate and secretive reporting. There are no penalties for incomplete or inaccurate reports, nor even for not reporting. The original reports are kept secret and sealed from any possible independent study or verification. The Oregonian, the state's major newspaper, complained in 2005 that Oregon's law reporting system "seems rigged to avoid finding" the answers. [Living with the Dying 'Experiment,' Oregonian, 3/8/05.]

Q. Why is I-1000 so troubling to people with loved ones in nursing home care?
A. Family members do not need to be notified when a loved one is planning to end her own life. The initiative also requires that doctors falsify the death certificate so the cause of death would be listed on the death certificate as the terminal disease - not the assisted suicide prescription. [Section 4,(1)(ii)(B)(2).] As a result, a family might visit a relative one week and the next week find the person deceased, with no explanation of the real cause.

Q. Why do disability organizations and so many leaders in the disability community oppose this law?
A. Society often dismisses the value and quality of the lives of people with disabilities, making many disabled people vulnerable to pressure and manipulation. People with new disabilities often feel despondent and even suicidal. But over time, they typically find satisfaction in their lives. Working through this initial despair usually takes far longer than the brief two-week waiting period in I-1000. In that critical early stage, many disabled people could easily take this irrevocable fatal step. And, as Dr. Kevorkian taught us, the line between a terminal illness and disability can be easily crossed.

Q. Why are low-income people and minorities opposing this law?
A. Our for-profit health care system often delivers unequal treatment, with minorities and low-income patients receiving the lowest quality care. Allowing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs could harm those least able to defend themselves.

Q. Why do so many women and senior citizens oppose this law?
A. Seniors and women already express concern about the quality of health care they receive. They worry about increasing ageism and sexism in society and in health care. Both are at risk as they may be coerced into feeling they are burdens. And both seniors and women suffer from untreated depression and unaccompanied grief in greater numbers than the rest of the population.

Q. Why do disability organizations and so many leaders in the disability community oppose this law?
A. Society often dismisses the value and quality of the lives of people with disabilities, making many disabled people vulnerable to pressure and manipulation. People with new disabilities often feel despondent and even suicidal. But over time, they typically find satisfaction in their lives. Working through this initial despair usually takes far longer than the brief two-week waiting period in I-1000. In that critical early stage, many disabled people could easily take this irrevocable fatal step. And, as Dr. Kevorkian taught us, the line between a terminal illness and disability can be easily crossed.

Q. Why are low-income people and minorities opposing this law?
A. Our for-profit health care system often delivers unequal treatment, with minorities and low-income patients receiving the lowest quality care. Allowing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs could harm those least able to defend themselves.

Q. Why do so many women and senior citizens oppose this law?
A. Seniors and women already express concern about the quality of health care they receive. They worry about increasing ageism and sexism in society and in health care. Both are at risk as they may be coerced into feeling they are burdens. And both seniors and women suffer from untreated depression and unaccompanied grief in greater numbers than the rest of the population."