LEGISLATIVE REPORT
Physician-assisted suicide bill appears dead for this session
After a long and vigorous hearing Feb. 5 in the capitol auditorium on the contentious subject, House health committee chairman Dennis Arakaki announced that the physician-assisted suicide bill, House Bill 1454, would be indefinitely deferred because there was not enough support for the measure in his committee.
And so it appears the issue of assisted suicide may well be finished this year as many in state senate leadership have expressed a desire to avoid controversial social issues and, instead, focus on such needs as affordable housing.
However, technically, both HB1454, and the nearly identical senate proposal, SB 1308, are still alive. We will monitor the situation carefully and let people know if the issue resurfaces.
At the Saturday hearing, opponents of physician-assisted suicide showed up in force. Numbering in the hundreds, their “NO Assisted Suicide” buttons were clearly visible from across the capitol auditorium. Doctors, nurses, lawyers, representatives from the disability rights community and various religious groups all offered different perspectives of the unified view that legalized doctor-assisted death would cause irreparable harm to the community.
Proponents, on the other hand, were fewer in number, several dozen in all. Conceding that unmanaged pain was not the issue at hand because modern medical techniques can control pain, their arguments centered on “choice.” They believe that physicians could be given the right to assist in the suicide of their patients who choose that option without the adverse consequences feared by opponents.
Speaking against HB1454 were many prominent local physicians, including doctor and lawyer S.Y. Tan, the director of the St. Francis International Center for Healthcare Ethics, and Dr. Fernando Ona, president of the Catholic Medical Association.
Dr. Tan told the committee, “The slippery slope concern is no fantasy; unconsented killing of patients occurs in substantial numbers in the Netherlands (where the practice is legal). It is a quick way of saving healthcare dollars, and the sacrifice will be disproportionately borne by the vulnerable among us.”
Dr. Ona called the bill “dangerous for the dying, dangerous for their families, dangerous for medicine, and dangerous for society.”
Chris Niemczyk, a University of Hawaii student born with cerebral palsy, argued that from a disability rights perspective, HB1454 was frightening because of the prospect of abuse and coercion. He reminded committee members how often people without disabilities undervalue the quality of life of people with disabilities.
He explained that Netherlands experience makes people with disabilities literally concerned for their lives at the prospect of such a law here.
In the end, the overwhelming preponderance of both the written and oral testimony was strongly against HB1454.
One particularly disconcerting aspect of the hearing, however, was the blatant anti-Christian bigotry on display on the part of some of the laws advocates. Many proponents used harsh rhetoric to imply that the reasoning of religious representatives amounted to religious extremism seeking to impose its beliefs on society. This is a disturbing trend that should be monitored closely.
As Christians, our speech and conduct should be characterized by charity as well as clarity. But people of good will — of all faiths or no faith at all — must be welcome in the public square, and at the legislature. The members of the house health committee, for the most part, displayed such an attitude. Some suicide proponents did not.
Hawaii Catholic Conference and Hawaii Family Forum are following a number of other issues including, affordable housing, domestic violence, child safety, religious freedom and civil unions. I will write more on those topics in the next Legislative Update.
Attorney Kelly Rosati is the government relations representative for the Hawaii Catholic Conference and Hawaii Family Forum.