Legislators have in two sessions debated giving Coloradans the right to control their end of life, and failed to do so. A “yes” vote on Proposition 106 will do what the Legislature could not.
Proposition 106 is known as “medical aid-in-dying,” and will make it possible for mentally capable individuals who have less than six months to live to self-administer a life-ending drug. Two physicians, one of them the attending physician, will have had to affirm the individual’s remaining length of life, and that the individual is mentally capable.
The law, a statute, not an addition to the Constitution, is modeled after laws in five other states. Oregon, where the option has been in place for 19 years, is best known.
The protections are many. The individual must be at least 18, and the prognosis must be for six or fewer months to live. The individual will have to make two oral requests for the prescription at least 15 days apart, and a written request. The written request must be witnessed by two people who will have to confirm that the individual is not being coerced, and is mentally capable. Only one of the witnesses can be someone who will inherit, or an employee of the health care facility. The prescription must be self-administered, which requires a level of individual control and which excuses any other person from direct involvement.
Other protections go further. Life insurance companies cannot refuse to pay a death benefit because of the application of medical aid-in-dying, nor can those associated be charged with a crime. Cost to the state government? At most $45,000 for the required annual statistical report about the effect of the statute. No individuals will be identified — just the statistics.
Medical aid-in-dying will give individuals control over the final months of their life, a time when their condition may no longer be what they define as life. Even with pain killers, an individual may not want to continue to a close-approaching end. Proposition 106 will provide that assurance.
What is known, too, is that some people who receive the approval to self-administer the prescription will not use it. What has occurred in Oregon shows that. Just having the ability to control the end of life might be sufficient for many. Given all that has gone into legislation in other states, and the legislative debates in Colorado, Proposition 106 is well-crafted.
For some control over the end of life, vote “yes” for Proposition 106.
