To Chairman Keith-Agaran and members of the Committee:
As some of you know, I am an attorney in Washington State where assisted suicide and euthanasia are legal. Our law is based on a law in Oregon. Both laws are similar to the proposed act in SB 1129 SD 1.
Attached please find a memo with supporting documentation opposing the act. The act seeks to legalize physician-assisted suicide and allow euthanasia. My memo and documentation can also be viewed at these links: https://choiceisanillusion.fil
The act will encourage people with years or decades to live to throw away their lives. (See memo, pp 3-6). The act is a recipe for elder abuse, especially for those in the middle class and above in the inheritance situation. (Id., pp. 8-9). The act creates the perfect crime in which the death is allowed to occur in private, without oversight, and the death certificate gives perpetrators a "stay out of jail free card." (Id., pp. 10-13).
Finally, the act's "oversight" provision is identical to one in Oregon's act, which is interpeted to prevent everyone, including law enforcement, from accessing information. See memo pp 16-18. According to Oregon's website, the indentity of individual patients "is not recorded in any manner" and "all source documentation is destroyed" approximately one year after a statistical report is issued. (Id., p. 18). If the proposed act is enacted, will this body have access to the information needed to evaluate the situation or will people be killed by their heirs and other perpetrators in a black hole of wishful thinking?
Thank you for your consideration. I urge you to vote "no" on SB 1129 SD 1. Please contact me with any questions or concerns.
Margaret Dore. Esq., MBA
Law Offices of Margaret K. Dore, P.S.
Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation
1001 4th Avenue, Suite 4400
Seattle, WA 98154