Battle looms in right-to-die initiative

Wash. petition drive wrapping up

Booth Gardner, former Washington governor, favors allowing doctors to help the terminally ill end their lives. (Ted S. Warren/Associated Press)

SEATTLE - A looming battle in Washington state over efforts to create a right-to-die law for the terminally ill is a personal one for two men leading it, both of whom are ill. Fighting for the measure is a former governor who wants the freedom to exercise such a right; fighting against it is a former press secretary who can't imagine anyone wanting to.

Proponents are wrapping up a petition drive for Initiative 1000, a death-with-dignity measure that is expected to be on the November ballot.

The initiative would let a doctor prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients who are believed to have less than six months to live. Oregon is the only state with such a law; the US Supreme Court upheld it in 2006.

Fronting the cause for advocates is Booth Gardner, 71, a two-term former governor of Washington. He has Parkinson's disease and has declared this to be his "final campaign."

"There are people like me everywhere who are coping with pain - they know that their next step is death," Gardner said. "When death is inevitable, we shouldn't force people to endure agonizing suffering if we don't have to."

Gardner would probably not be eligible under the proposed law because Parkinson's is not terminal. Still, this is a fight he identifies with strongly. Gardner has had Parkinson's for 14 years "with steady increasing loss of basic functions," he said.

"We have all made tough decisions throughout our lives, and we should be trusted to make tough decisions about the end of life," he said. "It's about autonomy, personal choice, and respect. I was in control of my life. I should be allowed to be in control of my death."

Chairing the coalition against the initiative is Chris Carlson, who was press secretary to Cecil D. Andrus, the former governor of Idaho. A longtime Democratic Party activist in the Northwest, Carlson, 61, who also has Parkinson's, calls suicide an "irrational and selfish act."

Carlson, who was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in 2005, fought it with experimental treatment until his cancer was deemed "dormant."

"That points to a major flaw in this initiative. Doctors can with some authority tell someone they have six months or less to live," Carlson said. "I was supposed to be dead two years ago, but I'm still here."

The coalition opposing I-1000, as the initiative is called, includes the Catholic Church, conservative Christians, right-to-life groups, and advocates for the disabled. The Catholic Church underwrote the opposition to a similar measure that Washington voters narrowly defeated in 1991.

The current governor of Washington, Chris Gregoire, spoke of Gardner as a mentor and friend, but she will not support his initiative. Nor will she campaign against it.

"Governor Gregoire believes this is a deeply personal issue, and she is not going to tell people how to believe. Voters in Washington will have to make up their own minds," her spokesman, Aaron Toso, said.

Supporters of I-1000 have until July 4 to turn in 225,000 valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot. "We don't have to worry," campaign manager Alex Morgan said with one month to go.

Simply defining the terms of the debate has stirred heated argument. Proponents describe "aid in dying." Opponents call it "assisted suicide" and say it would create a slippery slope to euthanasia.

Morgan says terminally ill people face inevitable death and only want an option to avoid suffering. "The term 'suicide' doesn't conjure a neutral image. Suicide is a violent act," he said.

Oregon's 10-year-old law specifies that the ending of one's own life under the controls and safeguards of the law is legally not suicide.

In a victory for the "Yes on I-1000" campaign, a county judge in Washington state ruled in March that "suicide" is a loaded term. He refused to add the words "physician-assisted suicide" to the ballot measure.

Oregon's Death with Dignity Act remains unique in the United States.