Assisted suicide bill has new Senate supporter

A perennial bill patterned after Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law has a new advocate and a higher profile.

The measure, sponsored for the past six years by Rep. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson, would allow doctors to help terminally ill patients die by prescribing a lethal dose of drugs.

"I'm a firm believer that people should have the right to control their own body," Lopez said. "I think it's between the individual and whatever they believe in."

For the first time, Senate Health Committee chair Carolyn Allen, R-Scottsdale, has signed on to the bill and agreed to hear it if it can get out of the House. But House Health Committee chairman Bob Stump, R-Phoenix, has declined to hear the bill in past years.

Opponents, chiefly the Roman Catholic Church and other religious groups, hold that physician-assisted suicide is antithetical to the protection of life. Among the concerns are that people who can't afford expensive medical treatment will be pressured to accept euthanasia.

Supporters say keeping people alive against their wishes is cruel and immoral, and that medical advances have changed the debate by keeping people alive longer and, in some cases, prolonging suffering.

"It's incomprehensible that you would allow people to suffer before they die," said Loretta Lande of Scottsdale, president of the local chapter of Compassion and Choices.

Since Oregon voters passed the Death With Dignity Act in 1997, 292 people have died under the terms of the law, according to statistics through 2006 from the Oregon Department of Human Services. In 2006, 65 prescriptions were written, and 35 people took the drugs. The Arizona bill, HB2387, mirrors Oregon's law. Terminally ill patients with less than six months to live could request a lethal dose of medication from their physician. They must request it a second time, at least 15 days later. Family members must be notified, and the patient may be required to go through counseling.

Unlike euthanasia, where someone else injects the drugs, aid in dying requires patients to administer the medication themselves.

Hospice organizations have traditionally opposed such legislation, arguing that hospice care can eliminate suffering for patients and their families and do so holistically, addressing physical, emotional and spiritual needs. That's great for the people who get good hospice care, Lande said, but not everyone does.

"It's like a security blanket," she said of Oregon's law. "Knowing that you have that option if things get bad enough."

On Wednesday, Lande and Lopez will lead the third annual march on the Legislature in support of aid-in-dying legislation.

If you go

What: March for End of Life Choices

When: 11:30 a.m. Wednesday

Where: State Capitol, 1700 W. Washington St., Phoenix

Information: On Compassion and Choices, call Loretta Lande, (480) 990-8086; on HB2387, go to www.azleg.gov