In a legislature where the Democrats run roughshod over the minority party, a Yakima Republican has decided to join forces with Democrats on SB-5179; an act relating to increasing access to the provisions of the Washington death with dignity act. Senator Curtis King was and is the only Republican to sponsor SB-5179. Even with the House companion bill, HB-1281, not a single Republican has signed on to sponsor the bill.
Senator King has been known to break with his caucus and sponsor bills regardless of his constituents support.
Why is any of this an issue? Multiple reasons.
Supporting physician assisted suicide or, as the Democrats like to call it, ‘dying with dignity’ presents multiple moral issues for individuals to include the physicians administering this treatment.
First, despite what we have seen over the last three years with COVID, a physicians job is to save lives, not take lives. Physician assisted suicide is the act of taking one’s life. Additionally, this would violate the Hippocratic Oath each physician is required to take. In the Hippocratic Oath, it states “I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan.”
When asked for comment on if Doctors would be forced to violate their Hippocratic Oath, Senator King responded via e-mail and said, “[he] doesn’t believe so. Doctors would not be forced to comply with this bill, they will have a choice.” The same could be said for physicians who refused to give the COVID vaccine over the last few years. Did we hear of any physicians refusing? Not really. The governmental, tyrannical, medical apparatus ensured no physicians would break from groupthink. If they did, they would be met with threatening to take away the physicians license. It is quite narrow minded to think physicians are not forced to apply medical advice to their patients.
We know politicians spend time on useless issues. It occurred to me this may be one of those issues residents do not care about. That theory was confirmed by Senator King himself when asked if he has heard from constituents that they would like additional access to physician assisted suicide. King responded and said “We do know that terminally ill patients would like to have this option.” A generic, broad statement instead of an answer to a very specific question sheds light on the motivation behind Senator King’s push for physician assisted suicide and that list of motivations does not include his own constituents’ concerns.
Asked directly, via e-mail, what his motivation was behind co-sponsoring this bill, King answered:
I felt this bill gave people who were in these types of situations an option to deal with their end-of-life pain and suffering, and with the safeguards that are included in the bill, it was a reasonable approach to help these individuals and their families.
Senator Curtis King via e-mail on January 13th, 2023
Is it possible Senator King does not care about his constituents dignity? Possibly. Is it possible Senator King has no idea the Supreme Court has ruled, in two unanimous decisions, that there is no constitutional right to physician assisted suicide? It is possible. It is also possible Senator King does not care about constitutional rights. But, that’s up for you, the voter to decide in a few years.
Good article David. I was involved when OR passed theirs.
Anything we can do as PCO’s?