Assisted Suicide in Washington? Opposition Forms

By JOHN FORTMEYER
CNNW publisher
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Concerned Christians failed to keep Oregonians from approving physician-assisted suicide more than a decade ago, but they are working and praying for a different outcome in the Evergreen State.
Sparking the fresh concern by evangelical Christians and other groups north of the Columbia River is a statewide initiative filed Jan. 9 by Booth Gardner, a former Washington governor.
Under the “Washington Death with Dignity Initiative,” Washington residents who have less than six months to live would be able to request from a doctor a prescription of legal drugs to end their life. If it makes it to the ballot, and is ultimately approved by voters this November, it would make Washington the second state in the nation to legalize assisted suicide.
To get the measure on the fall ballot, backers must collect about 225,000 valid signatures from voters by July 3.
Gardner, 71, has Parkinson’s disease and is spearheading the proposal despite opposition even within his own family. He patterned the initiative after the assisted suicide law that Oregonians approved by a 51 to 49 percent vote in 1994, and then by a 60 percent vote in 1997 refused to repeal. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 vote in 2001, upheld Oregon’s law.
Although the Washington measure would not apply to his own non-fatal condition, Gardner told the Seattle Times that backing the initiative is “the right thing to do – it’s the Christian thing to do.”
But a variety of Christian groups are responding quickly to fight Gardner’s proposal. Some evangelicals, such as Seattle-area pastor Joe Fuiten of Positive Christian Agenda, are part of the Washington Coalition Against Assisted Suicide. Backed by Democratic state Sen. Margarita Prentice, a former nurse, the coalition consists of people with disabilities such as the group Not Dead Yet; medical professionals; hospice workers; minority persons and religious groups.
Also in opposition to the measure is Faith and Freedom Network and Foundation, headed by longtime Christian leader, broadcaster and businessman Gary Randall. He said private meetings are taking place to discuss how best to give the bill itself a quick death.
“My sense is that we will defeat the bill,” said Randall. “However, these kinds of things seldom go away. If defeated this session, they will try again.”
Another Christian group, the Tennessee-based Christian Medical Association, voiced strong opposition to Gardner’s measure, saying it puts patients at risk by supplanting longstanding, recognized ethical principles with personal opinion.
“This bill to legalize assisted suicide attempts to force the opinions of a small band of suicide advocates on society and the medical community, and to force the government into the position of sanctioning suicide,” said Dr. David Stevens, the association’s chief executive officer.
“Longstanding recognized ethics, from Hippocrates to the Bible, have provided vital safeguards for patients while motivating physicians to practice true compassion by providing comfort and commitment to the patient ... The answer to patients’ suffering at the end of life is not to kill them, but to provide aggressive and appropriate relief from pain, compassionate counsel and unconditional love.” Advocates of physician-assisted suicide contend most people want to have a choice about the circumstances of their death and control over what happens to their bodies.
Back in 1991, Washington voters by a 54 to 46 percent margin defeated an earlier proposal that would have allowed terminally ill patients to choose a lethal injection. But the new proposal, like the Oregon law, would only allow patients to take self-administered drugs to end their life.