Hawaii Balks At ‘Death With Dignity’
The Legislature聽declined to hear the bill this session but mainland groups are taking interest.
Seventeen聽state legislatures across the country聽were聽considering physician-assisted suicide bills this year, but聽Hawaii’s effort is already over.
Hawaii lawmakers chose not to hear legislation that would allow a terminally ill, competent adult at least 50 years old to get a lethal dose of medication to end his or her life.
聽died in the聽Consumer Protection and Health Committee, chaired by Sen. Roz Baker.
A similar measure that was introduced last year in the House and was still alive this session also failed to get a hearing. stalled in the Health Committee, chaired by Rep. Della Au Belatti.
Peg Sandeen, executive director of聽Death with Dignity, said in an email Monday that the national nonprofit聽worked with a local group to “get a fair hearing in the Senate.” But that didn’t happen.
Oahu resident Lucien Wong brought up his concerns about end-of-life options in Hawaii during a hearing last week on a separate聽bill, but that’s about as much light as the issue saw this session.
“With Hawaii’s rapidly aging population resulting from the baby boom wave it is necessary for the state to prepare itself for services such as hospice, palliative care and end of live options which will be needed by resident seniors and other terminally ill patients before Hawaii’s public & private medical facilities and services become seriously overwhelmed and/or inadequate,” he said in his written testimony on聽.
Wong was the only private individual聽who showed up last Tuesday to testify in person on the measure,聽which would have established an Elderly Working Group to recommend a strategic plan to address health care concerns and needs for Hawaii’s seniors. The聽Health and Human Services committees聽deferred it indefinitely.
Death with Dignity is pushing the issue in multiple states, pointing at how California, Washington and Oregon have passed laws allowing physician-assisted dying.
New York lawmakers recently to make it the sixth state that allows the practice. A strong effort in Iowa after a robust debate, according to the Des Moines Register. And Maryland legislators ended Friday with hours of “heart-wrenching testimony,” according to the .
Hawaii’s聽“death with dignity” bill was one of more than 2,600 that died聽this session after failing to meet last Friday’s “first lateral” deadline in the Legislature. Read about other bills that didn’t pass, and what’s still alive here.
