Medical aid in dying bill advances in Senate

Hawaii moved another step closer Friday to legalizing medical aid in dying after a key Senate committee unanimously advanced House Bill 2739, known as the Our Care, Our Choice Act.

The Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health Committee voted 6-0 in favor of the measure after hearing about two hours of public testimony in favor of and against the bill Friday morning.

The committee did not make any changes to the bill, which sets out procedures for terminally ill patients to request prescriptions for lethal doses of medication.

“This measure, which I think is a very important one for all of our citizens, it doesn’t require anybody to take advantage of it; it merely gives people a choice and the option,” said Sen. Rosalyn Baker, chairwoman of the Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health Committee.

The bill still needs the approval of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a full Senate vote. A similar measure easily passed the Senate last year but was tabled by a House committee and never put to a House floor vote.

This time around the House drafted HB 2739, approved it by a 39-12 vote earlier this month and sent it over to the Senate for consideration.

During Friday’s Senate hearing, supporters and opponents made familiar arguments. Baker kept the hearing moving at a brisk pace, rigidly enforcing a two-minute limit per testifier.

Supporters asserted that mentally competent individuals should have the option to end their lives peacefully and with dignity rather than suffer from painful and debilitating illnesses.

Opponents, meanwhile, argued that life should be treated as a gift and equated medically assisted death with suicide. Some opponents worry that patients might end their lives prematurely, and say pain relief is already available through hospice and palliative care.

“When a person only has months or weeks or even days to live and there is nothing else that medicine can do or cure and it becomes impossible to provide relief from suffering, we should allow the dying person to choose a peaceful death,” said Kat West, national director of policy and programs for the Oregon-­based nonprofit Compassion & Choices.

West said Hawaii’s proposal is modeled after Oregon’s law, “which has been tested and proven safe for 20 years. … There has not been a single instance, not a single instance, of coercion or abuse.”

Five states — California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont and Washington — and the District of Columbia have legalized medical aid in dying. The Montana Supreme Court also ruled in 2009 that physician-assisted death is legal there under existing state law.

Supporter Malachy Grange said he worked as a hospice nurse in Oregon before and after that state enacted its death-with-dignity law in 1997.

“On one side, families and individuals who had access to medical aid in dying had peace of mind. They had some serenity because they knew they had access, even if they didn’t use it,” said Grange, who is a hospice volunteer here. “On the other side, I’d seen much needless suffering.”

Mary Smart, with the Hawaii Federation of Republican Women, opposed the bill, calling it dangerous.

“We reject the euphemism — aid in dying — and recognize it for what it is: mercy killing and euthanasia,” Smart said. “This bill degrades our lives from being intrinsically valuable just to a commodity to be disposed of when our utilities diminish by disease.”

Deacon Walter Yoshi­mitsu with the Hawaii Catholic Conference, which represents the Roman Catholic Church in matters of public policy, also testified against the measure.

“The legislators are trying to reduce suicide … and yet we are considering what I consider suicide for the terminally ill,” he said. “I think it sends the wrong message to the youth of our community that says it’s OK for one set of people in our community but not for us.”

Mentally competent residents who are at least 18 years old and have been given six months or less to live would be eligible under the bill to request lethal medication.

Two health care providers would need to confirm the patient’s diagnosis, prognosis, competence and that the request is voluntary.

Licensed physicians would prescribe medication to be self-administered by the patient. Patients would need to submit two verbal requests a minimum of 20 days apart and one written request for a prescription.

Before any medication is prescribed, a patient would need to receive mandatory counseling from a psychiatrist, psychologist or clinical social worker. The bill calls for criminal penalties for tampering with a patient’s prescription request or coercing a patient to request a prescription.