Death with Dignity law: Shorten waiting period

An except from a letter to the editor of the Seattle Times by Roy Graves, M.D., Anacortes, American Academy of Emergency Medicine Fellow and volunteer medical adviser, End of Life Washington

Apr 9, 2021

As an experienced emergency-medicine physician, I believe we should do everything we can to avoid deaths filled with suffering and fear. For those terminally ill patients who can qualify, our state’s Death with Dignity law allows them the option to face death on their own terms...

That’s why I support HB 1141, now before the Washington Senate, which would shorten the Death with Dignity waiting period to 72 hours. Our state should join Oregon and New Mexico in allowing dying adults of sound minds to have the shorter time requirement to access end-of-life medication.

To read the full letter at the Seattle Times, click here.