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Humanize From Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism
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Washington Bill to Allow Non-MD-Prescribed Assisted Suicide and to Shorten Waiting Period

Originally published at National Review
Categories
Euthanasia
Health Care

I previously wrote about pending Oregon and Vermont legislation to do away with the requirement that only doctors be allowed to legally assist suicides. Now, it’s Washington’s turn, with a proposal to allow “qualified medical providers” to prescribe poison, defined as a licensed physician, physician’s assistant, or advanced practice registered nurse.

I previously opined about why I think this is a very bad idea, so I won’t belabor the points further.

The Washington bill also speeds up the waiting period between the first and second request for poison pills for some suicidal patients:

Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, if, at the time of the qualified patient’s initial oral request in subsection

(1) of this section, the attending qualified medical provider determines that the qualified patient: (a) Is not expected to survive for seven days; (b) is not expected to retain the ability to self-administer the life-ending mediation for seven days; or (c) is experiencing irremediable pain or suffering, then the qualified patient is exempt from the seven day waiting period between the first and second oral requests for medication.

That could mean spur-of-the-moment suicides.

The “strict guidelines protecting against abuse” aren’t meant to be permanent, but rather, are put in place to convince lawmakers or voters to swallow the hemlock. Once that is accomplished, activists shift tactics to steadily liberalize the guidelines — now redefined as “barriers” — to make assisted suicide ever easier to access. Because there apparently can never be enough.

Wesley J. Smith

Chair and Senior Fellow, Center on Human Exceptionalism
Wesley J. Smith is Chair and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. Wesley is a contributor to National Review and is the author of 14 books, in recent years focusing on human dignity, liberty, and equality. Wesley has been recognized as one of America’s premier public intellectuals on bioethics by National Journal and has been honored by the Human Life Foundation as a “Great Defender of Life” for his work against suicide and euthanasia. Wesley’s most recent book is Culture of Death: The Age of “Do Harm” Medicine, a warning about the dangers to patients of the modern bioethics movement.