Voters approved Initiative 1000 on Tuesday, making Washington the second state to give terminally ill people the option of medically assisted suicide.
The ballot measure, patterned after Oregon’s “Death with Dignity” law, allows a terminally ill person to be prescribed lethal medication, which would be self-administered.
With about 43 percent of the expected vote counted Tuesday in unofficial returns, I-1000 was being approved by a margin of about 58 percent to about 42 percent.
Supporters, led publicly by Democratic former Gov. Booth Gardner, said the initiative would provide a compassionate way for terminally ill people to die.
Would somebody inform me what is the difference between assisted suicide and the advanced directives that many of us are considering signing? This is an honest question. I really don’t know where one draws the line.
Advanced directives deal with the withholding of certain life-extending care, whereas “right to die” involves the administration of a lethal dose of medication.
Maybe someone should explain to these people the folly of aborting and euthanizing their current and future power base out of existence.
Our ex-governor Booth Gardner has Parkinson’s, and has advocated this for some time. He seems to want to do away with every last shred of his own dignity by publicizing it for a couple of years now. If it’s such a crying need, I would have thought those few (and it’s always said to be so, so, few!) in need of this could catch a bus to Portland and die in “dignity” there. Rather, they must do so this side of the Columbia. I wonder if you know, the death certificate of such folks will list the cause of death *not* as suicide, but the illness that made the suicide “needful”. Pretty incredible. If you jump off a bridge *without* 2 doctors certifying you have only a few months to live that doesn’t count, then they say you killed yourself.
Well, I wish I knew the answer to this dilemma, because I am on both sides of it. What does scripture say about suicide? Larry
Judas committed suicide, Larry. It’s not a good thing! Seriously, suicide implies that we are not grateful for the gift of life that God has generously given us – it also implies that God’s mercy and grace are not enough.