Hawaii Assisted Suicide Bill: A Wide Latitude and No Choice for Doctors

We so often hear that physician-assited suicide is about “choice.” The patient’s to die, and the doctors to either facilitate suicide or not. But the new Hawaii bill to legalize assisted suicide requires doctors to participate—either by prescribing poison or cooperating with an “alternate physician” who does the deed. And note, the alternate physician need not even examine the patient, but rather, is a mere order taker who may not even have to meet the patient face to face. From the bill:

“If at any time an attending physician declines or is unable to fulfill any of the responsibilities detailed in subsection (a), particularly paragraph (12) regarding dispensing medication to a patient, the attending physician shall relinquish the responsibilities to an alternate physician who is willing and able to fulfill the responsibilities detailed in subsection (a). The alternate physician shall confirm with the attending physician or the consulting physician that the diagnosis has not changed and that the patient is capable, is acting voluntarily, has made an informed decision, and remains a qualified patient under this chapter. The alternate physician may not dispense medication to the patient under subsection (a)(12) until at least fifteen days after the alternate physician’s initial consultation with the patient.”

Forcing doctors to cooperate in assisted suicides, even those they don’t wish to commit, is in keeping with the agenda of normalizing killing into a mere medical treatment.

And get this language from the “who” may ask for assisted suicide provision: “An adult who is capable, is a resident of Hawaii, and has been determined by the attending physician or alternate physician and consulting physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, and who has voluntarily expressed that person’s wish to die, may make a written request for medication for the purpose of ending that person’s life in a humane and dignified manner in accordance with this chapter.”

Also note that the patient only need be “capable” of communicating his desire to have suicide, which is a different standard than being competent. Capable is defined in the bill thusly : “Capable” means that, in the opinion of a court or in the opinion of the patient’s attending physician or consulting physician, psychiatrist, or psychologist, a patient has the ability to make and communicate health care decisions to health care providers, including communication through persons familiar with the patient’s manner of communicating if those persons are available.”

Typical “choice” gibberish from the death on demand crowd.