Washington D.C. passed Death with Dignity Act

By guest writer George Eighmey*

Death with Dignity National Center's campaign in Washington D.C. began more than two years ago. It was on January 14, 2015 that D.C. Council member Mary Cheh introduced the act and her staff contacted our group to assist her in guiding the bill through the Council process. We immediately commissioned a poll showing the vast majority of D.C. residents support such a law, we sponsored ads, assisted in media interviews, spoke with other Council members and our own Peg Sandeen was invited testify at Council hearings.

In 2016 we engaged grass roots supporters to contact their council members and Mayor Bowser to urge them to approve the bill. We held conversations with the Washington Post editorial board to endorse the bill, which they did twice. We held private and conference calls to provide supportive evidence from Oregon's more than 18 year experience in implementing the law and we were able to refute the lies and misperceptions that opponents spread. All our work was done quietly and without fanfare, which is one of the reasons the focus stays on the local leaders and sponsors of such laws. A quote from former U.S. President Harry S. Truman sums up our organization's philosophy of working with others; "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."

D.C.'s law, after wending its way through a circuitous route of fierce opposition, passed overwhelming and was signed into law by Mayor Bowser on January 6, 2017. However, this didn't mean the law would immediately go into effect. In an archaic procedural process that denies the more than 650,000 D.C. residents autonomy, the U.S. Congress can overturn the city's laws by congressional action. In this case resolutions were introduced to deny the implementation of the law, but time ran out to get full Senate and House support. Congress still may deny D.C. the funding to implement the law, which is where it stands as of now, except technically the law can be used as of February 20, 2017.

Death with Dignity National Center continues to be the expert resource in providing information on how to pass aid-in-dying laws and we also use our expertise in defending those laws. Our efforts have led to the enactment of death with dignity laws in Oregon, Washington State, Montana, Vermont, California, Colorado and now Washington D.C. The credit goes to thousands of citizens who believe in one's right to die with dignity. We are proud to be among those citizens.

Current status: https://www.deathwithdignity.org/states/district-of-columbia

* George Eigmey is a former Oregon legislator who championed the passage of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. For 12 years he headed an organization to facilitate the implementation of the law. He is now president of the board of Death with Dignity National Center, the oldest right-to-die organization in the U.S.A.

Newsletter 2017-1-3-e