Jan. 4, 2025
Hawaii’s Our Care, Our Choice Act of 2018 allows for the prescription of a lethal medication under certain requirements, including to self-administer the lethal medication for the purpose of ending a person’s life, according to police. “Self-administer” means that a person ”must perform an affirmative, conscious, voluntary act to take into the individual’s body the prescription medication to end the individual’s life,” police said
Police alleged Friday that in October in the Punahou area, a 73-year-old male doctor assisted in administering the prescribed medication.
A Honolulu Police Department summary of the case said that on Oct. 15, it was reported to HPD’s Homicide Detail that a woman who died less than a week earlier did not self-administer the lethal prescription.
Police said the investigation found that the woman died at home on Oct. 9 at 5:34 p.m and that before her death, the doctor “assisted in administering the lethal prescription which caused the female to choke.”
“At one point she motioned for the doctor to stop, but he continued to administer the prescription,” the police report alleges.
On Friday, HPD officers executed a search warrant at the doctor’s home for evidence relating to the case.
HPD said this is the first homicide investigation involving Hawaii’s assisted death law and that no arrest had been made.
No additional information is being released regarding the ongoing investigation, police said.
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