Americans United for Life is disappointed by the Hawai’i House Health and Human Services and Judiciary Committees’ decision to approve HB 2739, which would establish a state-sanctioned system for physician-assisted suicide. States have a duty to protect the lives of all their citizens, especially vulnerable people groups such as the elderly, ill, and disabled; and to maintain the integrity and ethics of the medical profession by rejecting assisted suicide. HB 2739, by contrast, would make Hawai’i one of only six states and the District of Columbia to endorse the controversial practice known as assisted suicide. While no supposed safeguards would be enough, many in the bioethics, legal, and medical fields have raised significant questions regarding the existence of abuses and failures in jurisdictions that have approved assisted suicide, including a lack of reporting and accountability, coercion, and failure to ensure the competency of the person considering assisted suicide. America’s most vulnerable citizens, including the elderly, the terminally ill, the disabled, and the depressed, are worthy of life and equal protection under the law, which is why AUL will continue to work against this bill as it moves to the full House.
