Washington state allows assisted suicide with death with dignity law

Washington state allows assisted suicide with death with dignity law

www.news.com.au

WASHINGTON will become only the second US state to allow assisted suicide as its new "death with dignity" law takes effect.

Under a ballot measure passed during November elections, physicians in the northwest state will be allowed to write prescriptions for lethal doses of drugs for terminally ill patients who have less than six months to live.

Only one other US state - Oregon - has similar legislation, although a court in Montana recently ruled that terminally ill patients had the right to seek physician-assisted suicide.

Supporters of the new Washington legislation, made possible by a 2006 US Supreme Court ruling, say the law allows for "aided dying" rather than assisted suicide or euthanasia.

"Aided dying is neither euthanasia nor suicide," said Terry Barnett, president of the Washington branch of Compassion & Choices advocacy group.

"It's not euthanasia because euthanasia implies action by a physician to end a patient's life. It's not suicide because people who choose aid in dying are not choosing to end their lives.

"They don't want to die - they're choosing to end suffering that cannot be relieved and suffering that they are experiencing that is worse than death."

Supporters of the law say a string of stringent checks and balances have been put in place to prevent the system being abused, rejecting critics who argue the law will make it easy for sufferers to choose to die.

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Recently there have been a lot of discussions on suicide and I think that his law is going ease the pain of many waiting for their death. If there is anything that a human can claim he or she owns in this world is their life and it is the right of that individual to put an end to it if they wish to do so. I certainly hope that many other states and countries around the world could adopt such law and in the future amend the law to encompass other circumstances other than being terminally ill.

www.news.com.au
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Among our basic human rights we have the right to live. Why is not the right to die included in our Basic rights? That law is not good enough…. But anyway it’s a first step.

I am all for assisted suicide. Glad to see this happening. I wish more states would follow.

While I’m for assisted suicide and I believe the Government needs to get the hell out of my personal affairs and stay away from what I want to do and not do with MY body, I do squirm over this law.

Once the door is opened to assisted suicide it’s going to be far to easy for the government to take control.

Before you know it the government will be the one to decide who stays and who goes (like they don’t already) right up to who's born and who's not and I fear for that more than I can say.

And, it’s not a huge step to go from what you can’t do to your own body to what they will do with your life whether you want a little *assistance* or not.

peace

The sad thing about washingtons law is that there are a lot of loop holes that allow mentally unstable people to take advantage of it.

Sad but true... however I do support the idea of assisted suicide, but only if the government doesn't have control over it.

I smoke and I drink and I know that one day my actions will hurt the best of me. When that time comes, and I can not have one more smoke, or that one last drink, I feel blessed that I live in Washington State and when the time comes, I will have my opiton, should I want or need it to pass on.

S&F

If Washington will perform strict peer review on cases of assisted dying and keep the program out of Medicare funded hospitals then the bill might be advantageous. Something like that can not be run amuck with a bunch of fools in charge of it--It would be a program worthy of selected professionals to be resposible for. After all, isn't the patient the one to request the assist, the doctor shouldn't be making that decision.

How would a cononer's verdict of 'assisted suicide' sit with life-insurance insurance companies? As from what I understand, suicide is one of the get-out clauses for payment by insurers

I think this assisted suicide stuff is making headlines just to desensitize us to eugenics.

Like grandpa cant sit in the garage with the motor running, down a bunch of pills, walk off a ledge, wander into traffic, etc...

Nobody needs government to approve their suicide. It's not like they can come arrest you for killing yourself. Who's going to cuff a corpse?