Conrad Reynoldson Makes a Difference

By Margaret Dore, Esq.

Bill HB 1141, which had sought to expand Washington State's assisted suicide and euthanasia law, is dead. From my vantage point, a big reason was a young lawyer named Conrad Reynoldson (pictured here).  

Reynoldson is founder and lead attorney of Washington Civil & Disability Advocate, a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit, formed to ensure individuals with disabilities a low-cost option to protect their civil rights.

Reynoldson, himself, did not take the credit, sending out an email thanking others for the win. 

Expansion Bill Dead

 

By Barbara Lyons (pictured here)

The Washington State expansion of assisted suicide bill, HB 1141, is dead. It passed in the House by a 60-37 vote and cleared several Senate committees.  

Thanks to the dedicated, persistent work of a diverse coalition of people in the disability rights, medical, right-to-life and faith communities, the Senate adjourned last night without taking up the bill. It is dead for this session.  

The bill’s dangerous expansions included: reducing patient waiting times from 15 days to three days, allowing non-physicians to make terminal diagnoses and prescribe lethal drugs, and allowing for the lethal drugs to be shipped through the postal service rather than obtained in-person. Many thanks and congratulations to the coalition which led this successful effort!

Dore Featured Speaker

Margaret Dore

This evening, Margaret Dore was the featured speaker at St. Louise Parish Hall in Bellevue, Washington.

Her main topics included problems with assisted suicide in Washington State and how to win in the future against legalization. She also discussed suicide contagion in Oregon.

Special thanks to Debby Ummel who organized the event.

Death With Dignity Act Must Be Overturned

Click here for pdf version.

Washington State’s Death with Dignity Act was passed by the voters as Initiative1000. During the election, backers touted it as providing "choice" for individuals. A glossy brochure declared, "Only the patient — and no one else — may administer the [lethal dose]." The Act does not say this anywhere.[1]

•  The Act legalized assisted suicide as that term is traditionally defined. In the fine print, the Act allows euthanasia.

Join Us at the Fair!

This month, Choice is an Illusion will be at the fair in both Montana and Washington State. We have a long history of working in Montana, but this will be our first time in Washington.

In Montana, we will have a booth at the NW Montana Fair & Rodeo, in Kalispell, August 14-18, 2019. Click here to read our event flyer to learn more.

‘Death with Dignity’ Law Imperils the Poor

http://realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/9122

Last week’s article by an assisted suicide/euthanasia advocate struck me as a bizarre article for Real Change, which advocates for the dignity and self-determination of the poor. (“Terminally ill patients face shortage of right-to-die drug amid controversy over capital punishment,” Real Change, June 18, 2014)

Washington’s assisted suicide law was passed in 2008 and went into effect in 2009. This was after a deceptive initiative campaign promised us that “only” the patient would be allowed to take the lethal dose. Our law does not say that anywhere. See Margaret K. Dore, “’Death with Dignity,” What Do We Advise Our Clients?,” King County Bar Association, Bar Bulletin, May 2009, available at https://www.kcba.org/newsevents/barbulletin/BView.aspx?Month=05&Year=2009&AID=article5.htm.

WA Case Medical Homicide

 State probe finds hospital 'sloppy' in man's death

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article31786419.html
August 20, 2010

By Sheila Hagar, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

WALLA WALLA -- A Washington state Department of Health investigation found procedural problems at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in a death that Walla Walla County Coroner Frank Brown has listed as a medical homicide.

The department launched its investigation when a caller to the state's complaint hotline alleged that a 60-year-old patient at the hospital died March 1 of accidental acute morphine overdose. The caller, who is not named in the report, pointed to a forensic pathologist's autopsy, health officials said.

Brown labeled the death "medical homicide," a decision agreed with by Dr. Carl Wigren, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy. Wigren is paid by the county for his services.

Washington's Act Allows Euthanasia

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

Washington's Death with Dignity Act, Chapter 70.245, RCW, allows a patient to "self-administer" a lethal dose to end his or her life. See e.g., RCW 70.245.010(11). On close examination, this term allows euthanasia.

Per the act, self-administer is defined as the “act of ingesting.” RCW 70.245.010(12) states:

“Self-administer” means a qualified patient’s act of ingesting medication to end his or her life . . .   (Emphasis added)

The act does not define “ingest.”  Dictionary definitions include:

[T]o take (food, drugs, etc.) into the body, as by swallowing, inhaling, or absorbing.” (Emphasis added). 

With these definitions, someone else putting the lethal dose in the patient’s mouth qualifies as proper administration because the patient will be “swallowing” the lethal dose, i.e., “ingesting” it. Someone else placing a medication patch on the patient’s arm will qualify because the patient will be “absorbing” the lethal dose, i.e., “ingesting” it. Gas administration, similarly, will qualify because the patient will be “inhaling” the lethal dose, i.e., “ingesting” it. With self-administer defined as mere ingesting, someone else is allowed to administer the lethal dose to the patient. 

Allowing someone else to administer the lethal dose to the patient is "euthanasia" under generally accepted medical terminology. The American Medical Association's Ethics Opinion 2.21 states: 

"Euthanasia is the administration of a lethal agent by another person to a patient . . . " (Emphasis added).

Washington's act allows euthanasia.