Posted on: Friday, February 4, 2005

Assisted suicide bill gets hearing

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Physician-assisted suicide, an issue that raises complex questions of ethics, religion and medicine, may get its only airing at the state Legislature this session at a hearing tomorrow morning.

House and Senate lawmakers who want to make Hawai'i only the second state, after Oregon, to allow doctors to help the terminally ill take their own lives do not believe they have enough votes to be successful. Gov. Linda Lingle has opposed the concept in the past.

But several lawmakers said they want to give people the chance to talk about what has become an intense public-policy question.

The Bush administration has asked the Supreme Court to block Oregon's law.

"I firmly believe that people should not suffer at the end of life. That's critical," said Rep. Josh Green, D-6th (Kailua, Keauhou), a general practitioner and emergency-room physician in his first term. "But there is also a trust that exists between a physician and a patient. That trust is that a physician will try to heal you."

The House passed a physician-assisted suicide bill in 2002 that had the support of then-Gov. Ben Cayetano but it narrowly failed in the Senate. The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill last session after more than four hours of testimony but it was later shelved by the House, in part because of election-year concerns.

Under the bill that will be heard by the House Health Committee tomorrow, a terminally ill adult would be able to get a lethal dose of medication to end his own life. A doctor would prescribe the dose.

"People don't feel that comfortable with it yet," said Rep. Blake Oshiro, D-33rd (Halawa, 'Aiea, Pearlridge), who proposed the bill and believes there is value in talking about it even if it does not advance.

Several lawmakers said the bill will likely not be heard again this session if it does not clear the Health Committee after tomorrow's hearing. "It doesn't make any sense to waste time and get people's hopes up," said Sen. Rosalyn Baker, D-5th (W. Maui, S. Maui), the chairwoman of the Senate Health Committee.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser .com or 525-8070.