Washington State passes Death with Dignity measure

Washington will become the second state to allow doctors toprescribe lethal doses of medication for terminally ill patientsseeking to hasten their deaths.  Initiative 1000 was leading in most counties across the state Tuesday.  “I’m elated,” said former Washington Gov. Booth Gardner, who filedthe initiative and was one of its biggest campaign contributors.Gardner is battling Parkinson’s disease, though Parkinson’s is notconsidered a terminal disease that would qualify under the initiative.  Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion & Choices, anational right-to-die organization based in Denver that has providedfinancial backing for I-1000, said her group hopes to pass similarinitiatives in other states in the future, though it hasn’t selectedany specific states yet.  “We think the citizens of all 50 states deserve death with dignity,” she said.  Eileen Geller, campaign coordinator for the Coalition AgainstAssisted Suicide which opposed I-1000, said her group would look atvarious options to continue the fight against the measure.  The hard-fought campaign was “a wake-up call for the state ofWashington” that there needs to be improved access and support forend-of-life care, Geller said.  I-1000, modeled on a decade-old Oregon law, permits terminally ill,competent adult residents of Washington, who are medically predicted tohave six months or less to live, to request and self-administer lethalmedication prescribed by a physician.

Source/more:  Seattle Times, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008352033_1000prop05m.html