Legalize Assisted Suicide - Washington

This "Death with Dignity" proposition essentially mirrors an assisted suicide provision that Oregon instituted in 1997 — the only one in the country and one that has stood up to Supreme Court review. Under the Washington proposal, if patients were certified as having less than six months to live they could obtain prescriptions for lethal doses of drugs. Patients would have to be mentally competent for the law to apply. Opponents say the act would encourage people to give up hope too soon and would be disproportionately taken advantage of by poor people without health insurance who feel they are a burden on their families.

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