Hawaii Assisted Suicide Measure Reaches Senate.(Brief Article)

An Oregon-fashioned bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide has come to a tentative halt in the Hawaii Senate Committee on Health and Human Services after a seemingly inexorable journey through the state legislature. The bill had been championed by outgoing Governor Ben Cayetano (D) and passed the House 30-20. However, the Senate committee, chaired by pro-life Sen. David Matsuura, has deferred a vote on the so-called "Death With Dignity Act" indefinitely.

Its deferral is far from a permanent thing, however. A variety of possible procedural moves by a small group of senators could still pull it to the floor, or it could be added to another bill in conference committee. Any such move would be unusual, but is certainly within the realm of the possible for this act, which has had as many comebacks as a B-movie villain.

The following is an abbreviated overview of an incredibly complex series of events. Mere words can hardly convey the electricity that filled the air.

After passing the House of Representatives March 7, the "Death With Dignity" Act was referred to the Senate Health Committee. On the motion of Matsuura, a Democrat from the "Big Island" of Hawaii, the bill was amended by deleting the assisted suicide provision and replacing it with language intended to foster positive alternatives to the crises many terminally ill people face.

On March 20, Matsuura chaired an emotionally charged hearing on the revised bill, known as HB 2487 SD 1. Euthanasia advocates hoped and pro-lifers feared that, however the bill got out of committee, it would be amended again during the legislative process with the assisted suicide section written in once more.

While the March 20 hearing was technically a hearing on a bill that had nothing to do with assisted suicide, the issue became the focal point of the afternoon. The conference room magnetized people, who soon overstuffed it, sitting and standing on every clear scrap of floor. News camera tripods competed with the tangle of people for space to cover the proceedings.

In his opening remarks on the "Death With Dignity" Act, Senator Matsuura gestured to a table heaped with copies of written testimony and two piles of correspondence labeled "For" and "Against" assisted suicide. The "Against" stack was significantly higher than the "For," a visible sign of the pro-life movement's grassroots strength.