Hawaii Gov. David Ige has signed a bill into law that would allow terminally ill patients to request prescriptions from doctors to end their lives, making it the seventh state to have such a law on the books.
The Our Care Our Choice Act will permit the practice, referred to by proponents as “aid in dying,” beginning on Jan. 1, 2019.
“We know that our loved ones will eventually die, but they don’t need to suffer,” Ige, a Democrat, said in a ceremony for the bill’s signing, reflecting on the lives of loved ones who had painful, terminal illnesses.
Hawaii will join California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, Washington state, and the District of Columbia in legalizing the practice. Montana doesn’t have a specific law on the books, but the state Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that doctors could use a patient’s request for fatal medication as a defense against criminal charges.
Read more at the Washington Examiner.
