Washington’s Assisted Suicide Act Questioned

Margaret Dore (attorney, Seattle) has written an article entitled Death With Dignity: What Do We Tell Our Clients?, Wash. State Bar News, July 2009.

Arguing that Washington’s Death With Dignity Act is a mechanism that enables people to pressure or cause someone else’s early death, the article states that:

The new Act was passed by the voters as Initiative 1000 and has now been codified as Chapter 70.245 RCW. During the election, proponents touted it as providing “choice” for end-of-life decisions. A glossy brochure declared: “Only the patient — and no one else — may administer the [lethal dose].”

The Act, however, doesn’t say this anywhere. The Act also contains potentially coercive provisions. For example, it allows an heir who will benefit from the patient’s death to help the patient sign up for the lethal dose.