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Several Health Care Provider Groups Announce Refusal to Participate: Physician-Assisted Suicide Is Legalized in Washington State.
By a 5941% margin, Washington became the second state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. The measure, I-1000, was closely modeled after the Oregon law that has been in practice for over 10 years. The new law will take effect in March 2009.
Although there was a broad-based coalition which opposed the measure that included disability rights groups, religious groups, and the Washington State Medical Association, the pro-suicide movement simply had more money and more opportunity to spread its message.
The Seattle-Post Intelligencer reported that I-1000 backers raised $5.5 million, more than 60% from outside Washington, while the Coalition against Assisted Suicide raised merely $1.6 million. With a considerable financial advantage as well as the vocal advocacy of Booth Gardner, a popular former governor, the pro-assisted suicide forces were able to falsely frame the debate around compassion and personal choice.
Once the ballot initiative goes into effect, doctors will be permitted to prescribe a drug dose to a terminally ill patient on request. However, merely because a patient may request the physician assist in their suicide, health care providers are not required to do so.
The Washington State Medical Association, an outspoken opponent of the initiative, has said that "[t]here's no requirement if physicians aren't comfortable with honoring their patients' wishes." Over and above the individual physician's decision not to participate in assisting suicide, there is already a major hospital system taking the step of proactively prohibiting its doctors from participating.
According to Providence Health spokeswoman Karina Jennings, "We believe we don't have to participate and plan to exercise a conscience clause allowing us to be exempt." Providence Health, which is the largest provider of medical care to eastern Washington, operates eight hospitals.
Another organization, Hospice of Spokane, is also choosing not to participate in the law. It has already released a statement saying that its mission is to provide care and support for patients, not hasten their death.
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