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From the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
Assisted Suicide: The Continuing Debate by Rita Marker
Introduction
On November 7, 2000, Maine citizens were asked to approve the "Maine Death with Dignity Act." The ballot question was, "Should a terminally ill adult who is of sound mind be allowed to ask for and receive a doctor’s help to die?"
Voters who took the time to wade through the measure’s small print found that what was called "a doctor’s help to die" was not a commitment to providing care, concern, and pain control as long as the patient lived, but a prescription for a fatal drug overdose. The measure failed.
Washington and California Maine was not the first place where attempts were made to change the law by a direct vote of the people. VoterNot yet available initiatives to legalize "aid-in-dying" measures failed in Washington (1991)(2) and in California (1992). (3) Unlike more recent proposals, these "aid-in-dying" measures would have permitted both euthanasia and assisted suicide. Euthanasia activists attributed their defeats in Washington and California to the public’s natural aversion to doctors actively killing patients (euthanasia) and opponents’ ads depicting a syringe-wielding physician. So they went back to the drawing board and drafted a new "softer, gentler" bill.
