The state House is expected to complete debate this morning and vote on 38 bills postponed from Tuesday night, including a measure that allows physician-assisted suicide. Dignified-death bill
up for House voteBy Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.comThe controversial bill offers voters an amendment to the state Constitution to give doctors the authority to dispense, by request, life-ending drugs to terminally ill adult patients.
House Bill 2487, House Draft 1, closely tracks Oregon's death-with-dignity law. The measure proposes a checklist of requirements under which an eligible patient could request a prescription to end his or her life "in a humane and dignified manner through a self-administered oral lethal dose."
If approved today, the measure goes to the Senate for debate. But Senate Health Chairman David Matsuura (D, South Hilo) has said he will not hear the bill, a sign it may not survive the session.
In the House a bipartisan group of 15 opposed the bill last week during a preliminary vote.
Rep. David Pendleton (R, Maunawili) said yesterday he is worried about such legislation because of what he has seen in the Netherlands, where euthanasia is legal.
He said the Netherlands permits people to be euthanized under certain conditions without their expressed consent. That situation, he said, started decades ago when the Dutch government first allowed doctors to prescribe drugs to end a life, which this Hawaii bill would do. Instead, Pendleton -- who will miss today's debate because of a scheduled trip -- wants legislation to push better hospice care and pain management.
"Most of the people who commit suicides either have unmanageable pain, unmanaged pain or depression. It's one or the other," said Pendleton, who is a pastor. "So for me the compassionate thing is to work on those two things, not to kill them."
Gov. Ben Cayetano supports the bill, which sprang from recommendations by a 1998 Blue-Ribbon Panel on Living and Dying With Dignity. The panel unanimously agreed on six recommendations to the Legislature, including more support for hospices, advanced health care directives and living wills.
But the panel disagreed on two other recommendations: physician-assisted suicide, in which the physician provides the means by which a patient ends his or her own life, and physician-assisted death, in which the doctor actively administers a lethal agent with intent to cause the death of the patient.
House Economic Development Chairwoman Lei Ahu Isa (D, Liliha) opposed the bill last week and is expected to do so again today. Isa said she has philosophical differences with the measure.
"My philosophy is not one of 'cruelty,' but of respecting a higher power greater than ourselves who is the only one to give life and take life," Isa said.
Others in the House defended the bill. House Judiciary Chairman Eric Hamakawa (D, South Hilo) said last Friday that the bill helps people who have terminal conditions and are in unbearable pain. People should be allowed to choose a more humane way to die peacefully, he said.
Rep. Nobu Yonamine (D, Pearl City-Pacific Palisades) added it is time individuals are given a choice. "I would want to have that choice. ... I want to die with dignity," Yonamine said Friday.
Also up for debate today is a bill that explains how a governor, lieutenant governor or any appointed officer can be removed from office by impeachment. Reasons cited in House Bill 2824, House Draft 1, include treason, bribery, other high crimes and misdemeanors, as well as malfeasance and moral turpitude. House Republicans have questioned the timing of the bill, given this fall's gubernatorial elections.