Bill provides more protections for terminally ill patients than any other state
The House Health & Human Services Committee and Judiciary Committee today passed House Bill 2739 titled "Our Care, Our Choice." The bill provides the most rigorous safeguards of any state in the nation to protect terminally ill patients.
"The
Legislature has carefully examined this issue over the past two decades. During
the interim, we looked closely at what other states have done and heard the
public's concerns," said House Majority Leader Representative Della Au
Belatti (Makiki, Tantalus, Papakōlea,
McCully, Pāwa‘a, Mānoa). "This bill
provides strong protections for terminally ill patients and their families
while allowing patients to exercise their end of life choices."
The bill allows
qualified patients in Hawaiʻi with a medically confirmed terminal illness with
less than six months to live and possessing decision making capacity, to
determine their own medical care at the end of their lives.
The bill establishes
a regulatory process under which an adult resident of the State with a
medically confirmed terminal disease may choose to obtain a prescription for
medication to end their life. The bill also imposes criminal sanctions for
tampering with a patient's request for a prescription or coercing a patient to
request a prescription.
"Our Care, Our Choice" refers to the right of people to
make health choices for themselves. At least 30 states have either enacted or considered enacting similar
aid in dying bills.
Additional
safeguards in the bill include:
·
Confirmation
by two health care providers of the patient's diagnoses, prognosis, and medical
competence;
·
Two
verbal requests from the patient, separated by not less than 20 days, and one
signed written request that is witnessed by two people, one of whom must be
unrelated to the patient;
·
Counseling
required for all qualified patients with a psychiatrist, psychologist or
clinical social worker to determine that the patient is capable of making an
informed decision and is not suffering from undertreatment or nontreatment of
depression or other conditions that interfere with their ability make an end of
life choice;
·
Allowing
counseling to be done via telehealth; and
·
The
patient retains the right to rescind the request for life ending medication.
The bill now goes
to the full House for a second reading.
