ASSISTED SUICIDE: Quieter Killings

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/march/5.16.html

[Christianity Today] 18 Feb 2009--More than 10 years after Oregon stoked fears when it became the first state in the nation to legalize physician-assisted suicide, Washington and Montana quietly followed suit in late 2008.

On Election Day, 58 percent of Washington voters approved a measure allowing terminally ill adults to obtain lethal prescriptions if they are deemed competent. Just two states away, a judge in Montana ruled in early December that physician-assisted suicides are legal in the state. That decision is likely to be appealed.

Oregon's move in 1997 stirred widespread concerns in the medical community of a domino effect in other states, said David Stevens, CEO of the Christian Medical Association. This time around, the decisions did not receive nearly as much publicity because of the presidential election and the debate over Proposition 8 in California.

"The proponents of this are delighted," Stevens said. "The crack in the dam has broadened, and the chance for the dam to burst open and go to the rest of the country is very good." In January, legislatures in Hawaii and New Hampshire introduced assisted-suicide bills.