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Wash moves to implement assisted suicide law

Washington state officials have four months to set up a new voter-approved law allowing doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients.

Washington is now the second state in the nation to have such a law, and officials may look to neighboring Oregon for a blueprint.

The measure takes effect March 4. Officials at the attorney general's office and the state Department of Health said they have just started to go through the language of the measure, which passed Tuesday

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Under the new Washington law, any patient requesting fatal medication must be at least 18, declared competent and a resident of Washington state.

The patient would have to make two oral requests, 15 days apart, and submit a written request witnessed by two people. One of the witnesses must not be a relative, heir, attending doctor, or connected with a health facility where the requester lives.

Two doctors also would have to certify that the patient has a terminal condition and six months or less to live.

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would you support this if this bill came to your state

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ORIGINAL: JStucki76

I just think it's a slap in the face to doctors. If someone gives up hope and chooses to take their life, I suppose that is their prerogative. But to have a doctor assist in suicide is a blatant violation of the Hippocratic oath. And oath or no oath, doctors spend their careers saving lives, not ending them.

Personally, I don't think suicide is an unforgivable sin. And I can understand why some people may prefer it to a long, drawn out death. But to involve a doctor....it's just sick. If I were a doctor, I would be personally offended by that law.

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ORIGINAL: GregandJenny

i believe they can opt out.

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ORIGINAL: Dubya

Suicide is something that can be successfully accomplished without the state legalizing it. A 32 cal. bullet in the head is quite effective. So is a running automobile in a closed garage. Both can be relatively quick and painless and neither one requires assistance from a doctor or the state.

The real problem comes when the state becomes involved. For example, drugs required for assisted suicide are quite inexpensive compared with chemotherapy. In cases where a cancer patient is declared "inviable" even if the patient wants chemo to gain another 3 - 6 months of life the state can simply refuse coverage for the chemo and offer assisted suicide as the only "viable" option. This has been done in Oregon.

Please notice the word "viable". This is the same word used by President-elect Obama when he so elequently argued against the act which would provide treatment for abortion surviviors in the state of Illinois. Modern politicians use that word more and more to justify what our society would have once considered unthinkable.