Assisted-death legislation passed by panel

Joe Herzog, a 55-year-old Kailua veterinarian living with stage-four prostate cancer, fears the pain and suffering that could come as the disease slowly ravages his body.

He was one of dozens who testified Wednesday on Senate Bill 1129, the “medical aid in dying” bill, which would allow terminally ill adults with a prognosis of six months or less to live to self-administer medication to end their own lives.

The measure has spurred emotional debate from both sides 15 years after the Legislature last took up the issue.

On Wednesday the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health passed the bill with an amendment to allow advanced practice registered nurses in addition to doctors to prescribe lethal drugs. The bill now goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Being diagnosed with terminal cancer comes with great dread and anxiety about what will happen,” Herzog said. “The part that’s distressing is the lingering, painful wasting part. What I’m looking for is a peaceful transition. Let’s not spoil a good life with a lousy, miserable, prolonged death.”

Opponents, who refer to the measure as “physician- assisted suicide,” fear the proposed legislation will endanger the public’s health and safety, lower the quality of care, and potentially open the door to elder abuse and patients feeling pressured to end their lives rather than be a burden to family.

“There can be tremendous good that can come out of suffering. Our greatest sources of growth are not in times when it’s good but in times when things were bad,” said Dave Willweber, a Kailua pastor who opposes the bill. “I do believe we have choices in life — none of us autonomously chose to be born, our life was given, so I get the real impression that it’s not our life to be taken.”

Five states — California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont and Washington — allow medical aid in dying.

DeMont Conner, a 52-year-old Nanakuli resident who supports the bill, was diagnosed with chronic leukemia in 2015. He has chosen to stop the chemotherapy he’s been on for nearly two years to fight the cancer.

“I’m already dying,” he told lawmakers at a hearing before the bill was passed by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health. “At that point when it gets too unbearable for me, I want to be able to talk to my doctor and say, ‘You know what, pau.’ I don’t consider it suicide. I just consider it as a choice that we’re making that’s going to allow what’s inevitable to happen. It’s inevitable that everybody going die. I should be able to choose how I do that.”

Health care providers are concerned that this end-of-life option may create a “duty to die” as a cheaper alternative to expensive lifesaving treatment or escalating health care costs, said Cheryl Toyofuku, a registered nurse.

“Endorsing and legalizing doctor-assisted suicide is not patient medical care and is a serious public health policy concern,” she said. “Dignity is not found in taking away hope and life. It is not found in a handful of lethal pills. This bill is clearly about giving the doctors the dangerous right to assist in the process of suicide.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.