Saturday, July 26, 2008

Initiative 1000: "Voters in Washington State ponder Death With Dignity" (with video)



Carla Axtman (Blue Oregon), with video (02:32):
One of the things that makes me proud of being an Oregonian is our Death With Dignity law.

The citizens of this state stood up against an onslaught of nefarious rightwing interests and decided to make legal the ability for Oregonians to exercise control over one of life's most personal and intimate decisions.

Despite all of the dire predictions of abuse of the law, the law appears to be working as designed by its proponents. That is, to give the terminally ill and in pain patients autonomy over their end of life decisions.

Yesterday Initiative 1000, Washington’s death with dignity initiative, qualified for the November ballot. Supporters turned in nearly 320,000 signatures, prompting the Secretary of State’s finding that they had “more than enough signatures” with a validity rate of nearly 90 percent.

The campaign released a video, featuring Booth Gardner, popular former Governor who happens to suffer from Parkinson's Disease. Gardner is a key activist for Initiative 1000.So our friends to the north are now waging the battle we won here 10 years ago. Here's hoping our success leads to theirs.

No comments: