Changes in ‘Death with Dignity’ law will make it easier to access services

It will soon become easier for some patients to access aid and dying services in Washington state after State Senator Jamie Pederson (D-43) sponsored a change to the state’s Death with Dignity Act.

“So in the 15 years since the Act was passed, we have found a number of barriers for people who want to take advantage of the provisions of the Act,” Pederson said on Seattle’s Morning News. “One of those is that some folks don’t actually use a doctor as their primary care provider. Instead, they might use an advanced registered nurse, nurse practitioner, or physician’s assistant.”

The Death with Dignity Act allows terminally ill adults seeking to end their life to request lethal doses of medication from medical and osteopathic physicians. These terminally ill patients must be Washington residents who have less than six months to live.

Pedersen said the change in the statute will allow a medical professional other than a doctor to be the first person of contact.

“They still would have to be consulting with a doctor for the second opinion to make sure that the person who wants the medication qualifies for the medication,” Pedersen explained.

Another change has to do with making it more accessible to people, especially in rural areas. The original initiative required that medications could only be dispensed at a pharmacy.

“The changed law now will allow those medications to be dispensed through the mail, as long as the patient or an authorized representative of the patient will sign for the medications when they’re delivered,” Pedersen said. “And then I’d say a third significant change is the shortening of the waiting period between the first and second requests for the medication. So the original initiative made somebody wait for 15 days, and the new law will reduce that period to seven days between the first request and the second request.”

1 dead, at least 3 injured in Seattle after wave of overnight shootings

Fill-in host Travis Mayfield asked: “What do you say to someone who’s listening to this, who is worried that this makes it easier — and I say that in a negative way — for someone to take their own life?”

“There are still a lot of provisions in place that are intended to make sure that it’s not used irrationally,” Pedersen explained. “So there are still two health care professionals who independently have to determine that the person is a qualified patient, in other words, that they have a terminal illness, that they’re likely to die within the next six months, that they’re competent to make this decision for themselves in that this is the decision that they individually really want, that they’re not being pressured by someone else.”

Pedersen said nobody’s making anybody take advantage of the Death with Dignity law.

“This is an option that is really valuable to people who want to take advantage of it. And if it’s not something that aligns with someone’s values or the values of a particular family, then it’s not going to be an issue for them,” Pedersen said. “In that way, this reminds me a lot of marriage equality, a lot of [the] debate and discussion before it happened. And now that it’s become part of the fabric of our society. It’s remarkable how uncontroversial it has become.”

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.