assisted suicide

The Catholic Church is active in every anti-choice activity it can get its hands on, but given the controversies surrounding the abuse within the Church, perhaps, for once, they ought to keep their hands off.

While most polls have Washington firmly in the blue column, a strong anti-choice (for birth or death) turnout could have an effect on both the gubernatorial and the presidential election.

Initiatives are the essence of democracy because they let regular people make laws on issues that a legislature wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole (or poll).

Initiative 1000, the ballot initiative that would allow terminally ill patients the choice to seek life-ending medication, officially qualified for the November ballot Thursday when Secretary of State Sam Reed's office determined they had turned in more than the required 224,800 valid signatures from voters across the state.

"People all over Washington support death with dignity, and we're building momentum daily. We're going to go all the way," said former governor Booth Gardner.

Gardner, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease, has been the leading backer and a chief spokesman for the campaign so far.

A proposed initiative to allow smoking in certain businesses, notably private clubs and cigar bars, has fallen painfully short of the 224,800 signatures required to gain a place on the November ballot. The Olympian has a story on the ill-fated Initiative 1016, which collected more than 213,000 signatures, just over 10,000 short of the necessary amount.

The other prominent ballot initiatives to hit the magic mark were I-1000, which would permit doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients, I-985, which would change some of the priorities of the Department of Transportation in accordance with an audit completed last year, and I-1029, which would require more training for home care workers.

The AP calls it assisted suicide, but the right to die, or aid in dying, or death with dignity, ought to be a personal choice that Washingtonians make for themselves – without being told what to do by the government or by the Associated Press.

A federal lawsuit could upend our entire campaign finance disclosure system, just in time for November. Opponents of I-1000, the assisted suicide/death with dignity measure, are asking a federal judge to throw out many of Washington's campaign finance disclosure laws - including the definition of "political committee."

Opponents of the I-1000 Death with Dignity campaign are asking a judge to overturn campaign finance laws that require them to disclose their contributors in Public Disclosure Committee reports. The group, Human Life of Washington, fears that supporters of its cause will be harassed by those in favor of assisted suicide.

Joe Turner at the Tacoma News-Tribune has a story on the effort in Tuesday's paper. He says the group finds state rules, which would classify them as a political action committee if they buy radio advertisements, overly broad.

Although the formal campaign has yet to launch, people are talking about former governor Booth Gardner’s death with dignity initiative.  read more »