Polls show Washington voters favor physician-assisted suicide

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. Oct. 27, 2008. Oregon's stand as the only U.S. state to provide terminally ill patients with legal access to physician-assisted suicide may come to an end Nov. 4. Voters in Washington will consider a ballot measure, known as Initiative 1000, to enact a law similar to the one in Oregon. Under I-1000, access to doctor-ordered lethal doses of medication would be limited to adults who live in Washington and who are judged by two physicians to be mentally competent and likely to die of a terminal illness within six months. Fifty-seven percent of Washingtonians polled in early September favored I-1000. A third of registered voters surveyed by Elway Research, a nonpartisan polling firm, opposed the initiative, and 10% were undecided. Another poll, released in late September and conducted on behalf of TV station KING, found that 54% of voters supported the initiative, and 26% opposed it.