Hawai‘i

On February 12, HB 2451 passed out of the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce (8 – 3 vote) and House Judiciary Committee (12 – 0 vote). Unfortunately, the legislators voted to remove the provision that would allow the attending provider to waive the mandatory minimum waiting period if the patient was unlikely to survive. The other two provisions remain intact: to allow Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) to act as primary or consulting provider and to reduce the waiting period between requests from 20 days to 15 days. HB 2451 will next be heard in the House Finance Committee.

Its mirror bill in the Senate, SB 2582, was heard in the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Products, and Health on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, and voted in favor of SB 2582 on Friday, February 7.

The Hawai‘i House of Representatives Committee on Health heard testimony on HB 2451 on January 31, 2020. Compassion & Choices supporters attended and submitted written testimony in favor of the legislation. The Committee voted 5-1 in favor of the bill.

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On January 6, 2020, the Hawai‘i Department of Health recommended that the legislature amend the Our Care, Our Choice Act to allow Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) to act as the attending provider and allow the 20-day waiting period to be waived if the attending and consulting provider agree that a qualified patient will not survive the waiting period to help eligible patients access the law.

SB 2582 and mirror bill HB 2451 were introduced on January 20, 2020 to amend the Our Care, Our Choice Act to allow APRNs to act as the attending provider; reduce the waiting period from 20 days to 15 days; allow the waiting period to be waived if a qualified patient will not survive it.

The Department of Health also released data on the 1st year of the Our Care, Our Choice Act: 12 unique physicians wrote 27 prescriptions and 14 of those with prescriptions used the compassionate option of medical aid in dying.

In January 2020 alone, Compassion & Choices participated in multiple events with volunteers and supporters, including a successful panel discussion on the one year anniversary of the Our Care, Our Choice Act’s implementation.

Hawaii’s Our Care, Our Choice Act went into effect on January 1, 2019. The Act authorizes medical aid in dying in the state, after nearly 20 years of on-the-ground organizing by supporters and Compassion & Choices. Governor David Ige signed the law on April 5, 2018.

Thank you to all who worked so hard to see the Our Care, Our Choice Act become reality.

Get more information about Hawai‘i.

Tools & Resources

Resources for Patients

What patients need to know about the Our Care, Our Choice Act

Resources for Doctors

What doctors need to know about the Our Care, Our Choice Act

Resources in Other Languages

Find resources in Ilokano, Japanese, Tagalog, Chinese, Korean and Hawaiian

End-of-Life Planning

Planning for end-of-life is a deeply personal process. Let our experts guide you through it, step-by-step.

Radcliffe v. Hawai‘i

For more information about Radcliffe v. Hawai‘i, please click here.

Education and Outreach

Compassion & Choices has launched the Hawai’i Access Campaign, a volunteer-led effort to educate the public, health care professionals and health systems. The campaign works to ensure that people know how to access this and other end-of-life options and that institutions put supportive policies in place, so eligible patients will be able to access medical aid in dying if they choose. Compassion & Choices’ materials are available in seven languages in order to reach as many Hawaiians as possible.

On July 1, 2019, the Department of Health released their first report on the Our Care, Our Choice Act. Eight Hawai‘i residents received prescriptions from four different physicians, signaling a successful start for the Access Campaign in Hawai‘i.

History

Hawaiʻi residents have been working to authorize medical aid in dying in the Aloha State for nearly two decades, and Compassion & Choices Hawai‘i has built a large base of grassroots support. Over the past several years we’ve explored a variety of legal and legislative strategies to expand end-of-life choice and authorize medical aid in dying.

Our team included public relations experts, top lobbyists, pro bono attorneys, grassroots organizers and hundreds of volunteers and advocates. We worked closely with bill sponsors to review the legislation, filed a lawsuit to authorize medical aid in dying, gathered petitions, generated a constant drumbeat of media coverage and reached out to key health organizations. The Our Care, Our Choice bill was passed by veto-proof margins in both houses of the legislature.

On July 15, 2017, a state judge decided to dismiss a case (brought forward by Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing and Compassion & Choices on behalf of a Hawaiʻi resident with terminal cancer, John Radcliffe) that seeks to clarify that the Hawai‘i constitution and existing state law allow the practice of medical aid in dying. Plaintiff John Radcliffe appealed the court’s decision.

After nearly 20 years of on-the-ground organizing, the Hawai‘i State Legislature passed the Our Care, Our Choice Act in 2018. Governor David Ige signed the measure on April 5, 2018.

The Our Care, Our Choice Act authorizes the practice of medical aid in dying, in which terminally ill, mentally capable adults, with six months or less to live, can request a doctor’s prescription for medication that they could decide to take in their final days or weeks to end unbearable suffering and die peacefully. The law goes into effect on January 1, 2019.

Tools & Resources

Resources for Patients

Education and Outreach

Hawai’i Advance Directive

History

PSAs