FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, please contact:
Duane French, 360-206-337-2091
info@noassistedsuicide.com

Coalition Challenges I-1000 Ballot Title and Summary

Saying it is written with biased and unclear language, The Coalition Against Assisted Suicide has filed a challenge to the ballot title of Initiative 1000, the assisted suicide initiative, asking a Thurston County Superior Court judge to rewrite the title to make it impartial and accurate.

The current title was written by the Attorney General's office and, according to state law, included a ten-word statement, thirty-word description and 75-word summary. The statement and description appear on the ballot, while the summary appears in the voter's guide.

"The description that came from the attorney general's office misleads voters into thinking there are many safeguards built into the law. In fact, the law allows persons who are depressed to receive assistance in committing suicide, without notification of next of kin or evaluation by a mental health professional," said Duane French, of Coalition Against Assisted Suicide.

"Another misconception about I-1000 is that it gives patients new 'choices,' but in truth, suicide has always been a choice for people, whether they are terminally ill, teenagers, or suffering from depression. What is new about I-1000 is that doctors would be allowed to prescribe lethal drugs to their patients and to discuss with them the option of committing suicide," French, who is a quadriplegic, said. "It even requires doctors to falsify death certificates and for some health care providers to be witnesses."

"I-1000 contradicts a thousand years of medical practice," says Dr. Patricia O'Halloran, a Tacoma physician who is part of the Coalition. "This is a type of prescription and practice doctors do not want."

The Washington State Medical Association (the state affiliate of the AMA) rejects I-1000, and the Washington Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the Washington State Hospital Association also do not support assisted suicide.

Other problems with the Attorney General's description are the use of prejudicial language, using the term "medication" to describe the lethal drugs which patients would be given. It also uses the clumsy phrase "self-administer lethal medication" to describe what everyone calls "suicide" in plain English. "The title strains to avoid using the term "assisted suicide" when that is clearly what the initiative is about," said French.

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BALLOT TITLE AND SUMMARY FROM ATTORNEY GENERAL:

Statement of Subject: Initiative Measure No. 1000 concerns allowing certain terminally ill competent adults to obtain lethal prescriptions.

Concise Description: This measure would permit terminally ill, competent, adult Washington residents who are medically predicted to have six months or less to live, voluntarily to request and self-administer lethal medication prescribed by a physician. Should this measure be enacted into law?
Yes [ ] No[ ]

Summary: This measure would permit terminally ill, competent, adult Washington residents medically predicted to die within six months, to request and self-administer lethal medication prescribed by a physician. The measure would require two physicians to diagnose the patient and determine the patient is competent, three requests by the patient, a waiting period, and physician verification of an informed patient decision. Physicians, patients and others acting in good faith compliance would not be criminally or civilly liable.

COALITION'S PROPOSED LANGUAGE

Statement of Subject: Initiative Measure No. 1000 concerns allowing physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill adults.

Concise Description: This measure would legalize physician-assisted suicide permitting physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to competent, adult Washington residents medically predicted to have six months or less to live who voluntarily request such drugs. Should this measure be enacted into law?
Yes [ ] No[ ]

Summary: This measure would legalize assisted suicide permitting physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill, adult Washington residents. The measure would require two physicians to diagnose the patient and determine the patient does not have impaired judgment. The measure would require that patients make two non-witnessed oral requests and one witnessed written request. No next-of-kin notification or evaluation by a mental health professional is required. Participants acting in good faith compliance would not be liable.

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