Hawaii Becomes the Seventh State to Legalize Physician-Assisted Suicide
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The Hawaii State Senate passed legislation Thursday legalizing physician-assisted suicide.
The bill requires patients to meet several criteria in order to receive life-ending medication: Patients must make two separate requests to their doctor for the medication, undergo a mental-health evaluation, have two witnesses who can attest to their desire to die, and two physicians must agree that the patient has less than six months to live. Should the patient meet all the criteria, a physician can prescribe the medication, but it must be self-administered by the patient.
Six other states—Oregon, California, Colorado, Montana, Vermont, and Washington—and Washington, D.C., have already passed laws legalizing physician-assisted suicide, which supporters say can end unnecessary suffering for those with incurable diseases.
Governor David Ige, a Democrat, is expected to sign the bill into law.
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