[ OUR OPINION ]
Physician-assisted suicide
should be legalized in HawaiiOREGON'S law allowing terminally ill patients to end their lives with dignity through physician-assisted suicide has survived a court challenge, but the battle is not over. The Bush administration may appeal the ruling or ask Congress to negate the state law. Meanwhile, Hawaii's Legislature should revisit the issue during the next session and enact a law similar to the Oregon statute.
THE ISSUE
A federal appeals court has rejected the U.S. Justice Department's attempt to undermine Oregon's law allowing doctor-assisted suicide.
In a 2-1 decision, a panel of judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sharply rebuked Attorney General John Ashcroft for trying to use the federal Controlled Substances Act to intimidate doctors prescribing life-ending medication. That law is aimed at fighting drug abuse; it is not intended to control medical practice.
"The attorney general's unilateral attempt to regulate general medical practices historically entrusted to state lawmakers interferes with the democratic debate about physician-assisted suicide and far exceeds the scope of his authority under federal law," Judge Richard C. Tallman wrote in the majority opinion. Under the concept of federalism, states historically have regulated the practice of medicine.
Opponents of doctor-assisted suicide have maintained that it would lead to widespread use and abuse, but that has not been the experience in Oregon. Since the law went into effect in 1998, about 30 patients a year have used the law to end their lives -- about one in a thousand deaths in that state. Most of the lethal doses have been requested by patients suffering from Lou Gehrig's Disease and AIDS, according to Oregon's Health Division.
In 1998, a blue-ribbon panel appointed by then-Gov. Ben Cayetano recommended that the Legislature enact a law similar to Oregon's Death With Dignity Act. Last year, the House came within two votes of enacting the bill. This year, the bill was pulled away from the House floor after Rep. Scott Saiki, a co-sponsor, said it lacked the support needed for enactment.
"This isn't something that is going to rush out in 20 states tomorrow" because of the court ruling, said Scott Swenson, executive director of the Death With Dignity National Center. "The onus is for us to secure a couple more states to prove it can work." Hawaii remains the logical state next in line to adopt physician-assisted suicide.
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Sensible agreement
at Barking SandsAN agreement between Hawaii and the U.S. Navy on Kauai sets a reasonable balance between the military's post-9/11 need to expand protective zones around its facilities and the state's desire to maintain control of its public lands.
THE ISSUE
The state has approved a deal to lease the Navy 270 acres and keep land surrounding a Kauai missile range in agriculture.
Although the state will not charge a fee for the 270 acres it will lease to the Navy at the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands, the deal obligates the Navy to pay for a large portion of operating and maintaining drainage pumps and ditches on the Mana Plain land, a cost the state was not keen to take on.
The deal approved by the state Board of Land and Natural Resources also places 5,371 acres under an agriculture easement, which means that through the life of the 25-year agreement, the land will be used for purposes originally intended. The state also retains an opportunity to review the agreement every 10 years.
Military facilities have long been part of the landscape in Hawaii. The facility at Barking Sands, in operation since 1966, has become the world's largest surface, subsurface, air and space test and battle-group range and is one of Kauai's largest employers.
Its location on the west side of the island has been unobtrusive, generally because it had been surrounded by sugar cane. As sugar production waned, the land has been used for other agricultural purposes. However, the Navy was concerned about the potential for housing developments, unlikely as that may be.
The military has seen the conflict that arises when population growth advances toward facilities once remote and sought to avoid that. Its original proposal to take control of the state land forever met stiff community objections, especially because of previous disputes over shoreline access and a public unwillingness to cede more land to the military.
The Navy paid heed and will broadened beach use, albeit with some restrictions. The state has prudently held on to the land that has great value for agriculture; at one time the Mana Plain produced the highest per acre sugar yields in the world.
While not everyone is pleased with the agreement, it satisfies the needs of both the Navy and the public.
