Washington State voters approved I-1000 on November 4, 2008, making Washington the second state in the nation to legalize physician-assisted suicide (PAS). However, hospitals and healthcare providers in Washington are coming forward in opposition to PAS, refusing to assist in patient suicides despite the fact that the practice is now legal in the state.
The Washington State Medical Association, which strongly opposed I-1000, has asserted that although PAS is now legal, the new law does not require physicians, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities and professionals to offer and participate in the suicide of their patients.
Individual healthcare providers have now taken the Washington State Medical Association at its word that their rights will be protected. SpokesmanReview.com, a Washington-based media outlet, has reported that Eastern Washington’s largest healthcare provider, Providence Health and Services, has instituted a policy prohibiting physicians from assisting in the suicides of patients at its hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted care facilities. Providence Health and Services operates eight hospitals in Washington State.
A statement issued by Sacred Heart Medical Center and Holy Family Hospital declared, “Providence will not support physician-assisted suicide within its ministries…This position is grounded in our basic values of respect for the sacredness of life, compassionate care of dying and vulnerable persons, and respect for the integrity of medical, nursing and allied health professions. We do not believe health care providers should ever be put in a position of aiding a patient in taking his or her own life.”
Thus, these events have implicated not only end-of-life issues facing healthcare providers, but also those providers’ right of conscience—the right of individuals and institutions to practice their profession in accordance with their consciences and religious beliefs, without being discriminated against or forced to choose between their livelihood and their moral convictions. We are all aware of the rights of conscience attacks healthcare providers have faced in the areas of abortion and contraception—it logically follows that PAS advocates will attack as well.
Specifically, the “right” to contraception and the “right to choose” have had the severe adverse effect of trumping the right to religious freedom, the very right upon which our country was founded. In addition, the “right” to contraception and the “right to choose” have also created a new “duty to provide” for healthcare professionals. Now, it is not enough to simply have a “right” to contraception and a “right to choose”; healthcare providers in many situations have been forced to cater to that “right” absolutely and without question, even if it means a violation of their own fundamental right to religious freedom.
It may not be long before healthcare providers in Washington will similarly be called upon to violate their consciences or else be forced to leave their professions. The approval of I-1000 has created a new “right to die” in Washington, which may very well generate a corresponding absolute “duty to provide” for healthcare professionals, just as the “right to choose” has resulted in abortion advocates urging a duty to provide in the abortion context.
Like Pandora’s box, the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in Washington presents a multitude of both hidden and apparent dangers for Washington citizens. Currently, Washington law does not explicitly protect healthcare providers who conscientiously object to participation in PAS. It is only a matter of time before we see the Washington State Medical Association’s stance attacked by PAS advocates. Thus, it is imperative that Washington legislators mobilize now and enact rights of conscience legislation that specifically protects healthcare providers from being forced to participate in physician-assisted suicide.
