CALIFORNIA, HAWAII FACE EUTHANASIA LEGALIZATION DRIVES AS DUTCH MOVE TO NONVOLUNTARY KILLING OF NEWBORNS

Major efforts at Oregon-style legalization of assisting suicide are scheduled for the 2005 legislative sessions in Hawaii and California.

After the November elections, it is clear that proponents of assisting suicide in Hawaii have over a majority in both houses. The question will be whether it is possible to muster the votes to sustain a possible veto by Hawaii Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, who has said she opposes legalization.

In California, state Representative Patty Berg, chair of the Assembly committee on aging, announced her intent to introduce an assisting-suicide bill, and set hearings for January and February. Berg told the Times Standard the bill "will be modeled after a similar bill the Legislature rejected in 1999, which was modeled on Oregon's voter-approved physician aid-in-dying law of 1997."

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared himself undecided on the issue.

While advocates push for legalization of euthanasia in these key states, the Netherlands is moving farther down the slippery slope. The Groningen Academic Hospital announced that it has been administering lethal doses to children born with disabilities such as spina bifida.

Although it reported four such cases in 2003 to government prosecutors, and although under what is current law, nonvoluntary euthanasia is theoretically illegal, authorities have taken no action against the hospital. On the contrary, the Dutch Health Ministry is on the verge of publicly responding to a petition from the main Dutch doctors' association to legalize the killing of those "with no free will," including children and adults with severe mental retardation.

Meanwhile, the two major pro-euthanasia groups in the United States have merged. Founded by Derek Humphry, the Hemlock Society has long been the "cutting edge" pro-death organization, while "Compassion in Dying" has been the more sophisticated, pragmatic wing. Hemlock's leaders apparently have concluded that the open, "in-your-face" approach is not working.

First, Hemlock renamed itself "End-of-Life Choices," prompting founder Derek Humphry to leave. More recently, Hemlock voted to merge with Compassion in Dying, resulting in a group now named "Compassion & Choices." Whether this re-branding and tilt toward "professionalism" will work, only time will tell.

All this is taking place even as the Bush Administration has asked the United States Supreme Court to overturn a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that has prevented implementation of Attorney General John Ashcroft's 2001 directive that federally controlled drugs not be used to assist suicide. (For full details. see the story that begins on the back cover.)

Ironically, the renewed pro-euthanasia push comes even as a national poll released November 24, 2004, found, that "public support for physician-assisted suicide is now at the lowest point since the CBS News/New York Times poll began asking the question in 1990," according to CBS News.

Results came from a random sample of 885 adults who were interviewed by telephone November 18-21.

The poll found support at 46% and opposition at 45%, compared to November 1998 figures of 52% in support to only 37% opposed. Among the noteworthy findings are that a majority of women, African Americans, and those over 65 oppose assisted suicide.