Posted on: Friday, January 24, 2003

Assisted suicide on women's agenda

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

The Hawai'i Women's Coalition has embraced assisted suicide as one of its priorities for the new legislative session.

The coalition, made up of leaders in the women's rights community, also announced its support Wednesday for a series of other bills that would strengthen the state's abortion law, establish an earned income tax credit and establish a financing program to help Hawai'i residents obtain long-term care insurance.

Support for assisted suicide, which nearly passed the Legislature last year, is new for the women's coalition. This year's bill, like last year's measure, would give a terminally ill and competent adult the right to request assistance from a physician in hastening death if all other attempts to relieve pain or suffering have proven ineffective.

Roland Halpern of the group Compassion in Dying said assisted suicide is a women's rights issue. In Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal, about 50 percent who choose an assisted death are female, Halpern said. In Hawai'i, he said, 80 percent of nursing home residents are women.

"We feel that by legalizing a law that allows for the opening of dialogue between the physician and the patient, people that otherwise might have considered suicide as an option will be able to explore other options," Halpern said.

Statistics, he said, also show that "while men are more successful in committing suicides, three times as many women attempt it."

On the abortion front, the legislation proposed by the coalition would put Hawai'i's right to choose law on stronger legal footing in the event the Roe v. Wade decision is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, said Annelle Amaral, head of Planned Parenthood.

A woman's right to choose an abortion hinges on the legal interpretation of the Hawai'i Constitution's section regarding an individual's right to privacy. A Hawai'i Supreme Court majority could overturn that interpretation and no statute exists that would provide for it, Amaral said. "What we are creating here is a public policy that provides the unfettered right for a woman to choose," she said.

Other items on the coalition agenda would:

• Set up a "long-term care income tax" that would be assessed to most taxpayers with money going toward a trust fund that would help finance long-term care for those who need assistance.

• Establish earned income tax credits for individual taxpayers based on a percentage of federal earned income tax credits.

• Require the Department of Human Resources Development to gather information and determine if gender equity exists in the workplace and establish a commission on pay equity.

• Require those receiving state money to provide information or offer programs regarding sexual education that is medically accurate and factual.