Assisted Suicide: The Wind in Their Sails

By Wesley J. Smith
Monday, November 10, 2008

Between 1994 and last Tuesday, the assisted-suicide movement in this country was moribund. Having passed Measure 16 in 1994 (Oregon Death with Dignity Act), and seeing it go into effect in 1997, despite widespread expectations and notwithstanding myriad state legislative efforts and two voter referenda (Michigan and Maine), no other state swallowed the assisted-suicide hemlock.

Frustrated advocates adopted an “Oregon-plus-one” strategy, believing that if only a second state legalized assisted suicide, it would put the winds back into their sails. That theory is about to be tested. Boosted by a multi-million dollar campaign budget that swamped the opposition—most coming from out of state, some even from out of the country—fronted by a popular former governor who also poured in hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money into the cause, and cheered on by a media all but unanimously in favor of “death with dignity,” Washington State became the “plus one” on November 4, 2008 when Initiative 1000 cruised to a 58–42 victory.

And with that success, the sails of the ghost ship Euthanasia rippled with the briskly rising breeze, and once again began to plow through the waves toward other shores, far and near. Soon, legislation will be introduced to legalize assisted suicide in stated throughout the country—California, Vermont, Arizona, Wisconsin, Hawaii, perhaps Ohio, and others—to make it Oregon-plus-two, -three, -four, and -five. the rest