Death with Dignity in Washington

     In March 2009, the state of Washington's Death with Dignity law took effect.  It's an aid-in-dying law, modeled on that of Oregon.  In a statewide referendum on November 4, 2008, it was voted in by a large margin: 59% to 41% . 

        After studying the ten-year experience of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, seventeen newspapers in Washington, including the Seattle Times, Wanatchee World, Sammamish Review, Newcastle News and The Daily Evergreen, had endorsed the initiative and recommended a Yes vote.

       

News from Montana

       On December 31, 2009, the Montana Supreme Court issued its decision to let stand a judge's ruling in December 2008 concerning a man with terminal cancer who had sued the state. That decision made Montana the third state to allow aid in dying.

      The Supreme Court ruled that neither state law nor public policy prevented doctors from prescribing lethal drugs to terminally-ill patients who want to end their lives. 

       Opponents of the decision will take their case to the legislature which has the power to enact laws prohibiting physician-aided dying.

 

News from California

        On September 30, 2008, California Governor Schwarzenegger signed the Terminal Patients’ Right to Know End-of-Life Options Act. The Act is the first in the nation to provide terminally ill patients with a full disclosure of, and counseling about, all available end-of-life care options accepted in law and medicine. When requested, information about hospice care, refusal or withdrawing of life-prolonging treatments, voluntary stopping eating and drinking (VSED), palliative care and palliative sedation will be discussed with the patient. The Act also requires that health care providers who do not wish to comply with a particular patient’s choice must refer or transfer the patient to another provider.     

Other News

      American Medical Women's Association supports   
        Aid in Dying.  September 9, 2007.

 

Headline in Medical News Today, January 8, 2009: American Public Health Association Releases New Policy Supporting Patients Rights To Death With Dignity.  More 

                    

Editorials and Articles

AMA Opposition and the Path Ahead by Barbara Coombs Lee.  The Huffington Post. 
June 18, 2009

At the Very End of Life by Kathryn L. Tucker, JD.  Harvard Health Policy Review. Vol.10, No.1, Spring 2009.

Burlington Free Press My Turn by Monica Knorr. Vermonters ready to have death with dignity.

November 16, 2008.

New York Times article by Jane Brody.
Terminal Options for the Irreversibly Ill.
March 18, 2008.

Seattle Times Editorial
Judging the dying: Oregon's experience.
January 10, 2008.

Bennington Banner Editorial
Take a second look. March 24, 2007.

Bennington Banner Editorial
Allow choice at the end. March 3, 2007.

Brattleboro Reformer Editorial
In the end, respect. January 17, 2007.

Manchester Journal Editorial
Death with Dignity. January 26, 2007.

Times Argus Editorial
Dignity wins. January 20, 2006.

Articles

Dying with Dignity
By Debbie Cartwright.  The Dallas Morning News.  December 2, 2007.

University study shows no abuse of legal doctor-assisted suicide
By Kirsten Stewart. The Salt Lake Tribune. September 26, 2007.

An end to the suffering
By Rep. Malcolm Severance. Livin' the Vermont Way. January-February 2006.

Keep alive the right to die
By Marcia Angell. Los Angeles Times. October 4, 2005.

Most Back Right to Die, Survey Says
By Candace Page. Burlington Free Press. January 5, 2005.