Oregon Public Broadcasting

Thursday Washington joins Oregon to become the second state in the nation to allow physician assisted suicide.

On the eve of the law taking effect, opponents rallied outside the State Department of Health. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

The small group of protestors held signs that said things like: “Shame on you. Your job is protection. You failed. People will die.”

It’s a reference to the rules the Health Department wrote to implement I-1000 – which voters passed overwhelmingly last November.

Ed Sauley of Olympia worries that dying patients will be pressured to participate in the law. It makes him think of his elderly father whom he took care of at home.

Ed Sauley: “And I just thought how terrible it is if he would have been told or it was implied that he was a burden on society and he should say adios.”

Supporters of Washington’s so-called Death with Dignity Act dismiss that concern.

They note a similar law has been in effect in Oregon for more than a decade and say the Oregon experience proves the law can work in Washington too.

They add that opponents want to undo the law by bogging it down in regulations.