Death Returns To Our Valley.(Health Committee of the Arizona House of Representatives. Bill 2313)(physician-assisted suicide bill)

Two years ago a physician-assisted suicide bill was introduced in the Health Committee of the Arizona House of Repre-sentatives. HB 2454 was heard, but not voted on, which killed the bill for that legislative session.

On January 19, 2005, House Bill 2313 was introduced. Proposed by 18 Democratic legislators, the measure would legalize physician-assisted suicide for those individuals with a "condition" which would likely cause death in six months. HB 2313 is patterned after Oregon's "Death with Dignity Law," which was also sponsored by the Hemlock Society. (The name has been sanitized; the group is now known by its new name, "End of Life Choices.")

HB 2313, like its predecessor, is deeply flawed, endangering the elderly, the disabled, the poor, and the chronically ill. Specifically, the areas of potential abuse are:

* The "attending physician" who prescribes the deadly dose of barbiturates is, in many cases, not the patient's family doctor, but one of a select group of euthanasia proponents who will see the patient one or two times before the killing takes place.

* The "consulting physician" is not required to be a specialist (oncologist, pain control, pulmonologist, etc.), but can vaguely be "experienced" to make a "diagnosis and prognosis" of the patient's disease.

* The most glaring of all the bill's many deficiencies is that no psychiatric examination is required, but only done if the consultant believes it is warranted. Studies have shown over 94% of those who commit suicide suffer from mental disorders, usually depression. Despite the knowledge that pain, anorexia, and weakness are all increased by depression, the number of psychiatric referrals in Oregon declined from 31% in 1998 to 5% in 2003.

* The patient is not required to notify parent, child, or spouse.