Hawaii Braces For Legalization of Assisted Suicide



Honolulu, HI — While the U.S. attorney general is embroiled in a battle with Oregon over the constitutionality of its assisted suicide law, a stealth move in the Hawaii Legislature has brought Hawaii to the brink of becoming the second state to legalize the practice.

In a surprising development last week, Hawaii state legislators pulled a procedural move that sent a previously stalled assisted-suicide bill on to the Senate for a vote.

Kelly Rosati, executive director of the Hawaii Family Forum in Honolulu, said it was a very quiet campaign. “Many of the senators did not even know that this was planned,” Rosati said.

The bill, which had been approved by the state House, was parked in the Senate Health Committee, where the chairman, state Sen. David Matsuura, had refused to let it be called for a committee vote. Then yesterday, senators took the decision out of his hands by voting as a larger body to pull the bill out of the Health Committee.

The vote to move the bill to the Senate floor prevailed 15-10 and the bill received a 13-12 vote on second reading. The state House of Representatives passed the measure on March 7. If the Senate approves the bill, it will go to the governor, who is expected to sign it.

Pro-life activists strongly oppose this legislation and see the bill's title — “Death with Dignity “— as a misnomer. “‘Death with Dignity' appears to make this bad law more appealing and conceals what would really take place if it passes,” Rosati said. “That is, (it would) put the lives of the most vulnerable populations in the state at risk. Elderly and disabled citizens sometimes feel a burden to their families, so the 'option' of physician-assisted suicide becomes the 'duty to die' for those who feel this pressure. Others who lack good health care, family support or who experience abuse at the hands of their caregivers, resort to physician-assisted suicide as an act of desperation, not a 'choice.'

For more information on this story, visit the Focus On The Family website.

(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)

Subscribe to CE
(It's free)

Go to Catholic Exchange homepage

MENU