YOU Did It!
Death with Dignity Initiative Certified to Ballot
SEATTLE – Initiative 1000, Washington’s death with dignity initiative, has qualified for the November ballot. Death with dignity supporters turned in nearly 320,000 signatures, and the Secretary of State’s office found that they had “more than enough signatures” with a validity rate of nearly 90 percent.
The YES! on 1000 campaign released a video on YouTube of the rally at the State Capitol when the signatures were turned in to the Secretary of State. In the video, former governor Booth Gardner and volunteer Nancy Niedzielski speak to cheering supporters about the importance of bringing the choice of death with dignity to Washington.
Click here to watch the video.
“People all over Washington support death with dignity, and we’re building momentum daily. We’re going to go all the way,” said former governor Booth Gardner, a leader of Washington’s death with dignity movement. Gardner suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and has said that supporting the aid-in-dying provisions of I-1000 will be his last campaign. “Nobody, not the government and not the church, should tell you how much you have to suffer if you are terminally ill,” said Niedzielski. “If you want to choose a death with dignity, that decision should be your decision.”
Initiative 1000 would allow mentally competent, terminally ill adults the legal choice to request and self-administer life-ending medication. The initiative is based on an Oregon death with dignity law that has been in place for over a decade.
Washington’s death with dignity initiative has already been endorsed by newspapers across the state, including the Seattle Times, the Everett Herald, the Vancouver Columbian, the Portland Oregonian, the Issaquah Press, and the Lewiston Tribune.
Organizations supporting Washington’s death with dignity initiative include the ACLU, the American Medical Student Association, the American Medical Women’s Association, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, Compassion & Choices, the National Association of Social Workers (WA Chptr.), the Lifelong AIDS Association, the Humanists of Washington, the Libertarian Party of Washington, the National Council of Jewish Women (Seattle), the National Women’s Law Center, the Older Women’s League (Seattle), the Washington State Public Health Association, and the Washington State Unitarian Universalist Voices for Justice.
Initiative 1000 mirrors the death with dignity law that has been in place in Oregon for over 10 years. The safeguards, which include independently witnessed oral and written requests, two waiting periods, mental competency and diagnoses confirmed by two physicians, and self-administration of the lethal medication, have proved effective.
Supporters of death with dignity now need to raise significant funds to prepare for an onslaught of opposition money from anti-abortion forces and a small group of Catholic Church hierarchy. A similar campaign against death with dignity spent more than $5 million in Michigan in 1998, and opponents have outspent supporters by a ratio of six to one in the last two ballot measure elections in which death with dignity was considered.
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Death with Dignity Initiative Gathers Nearly 100,000 More Signatures Than Required!
The campaign is happy to announce that the supporters of Initiative 1000, the death with dignity initiative, have gathered over 320,000 signatures, almost 100,000 more than the amount needed to earn the initiative a place on the November ballot.
We want to thank the thousands of supporters across Washington who are helping to bring end-of-life choices to terminally ill patients," said former governor Booth Gardner, who spoke to volunteers on the steps of the state Capitol before turning in signatures to the Secretary of State.
Gardner suffers from Parkinson's disease, and has said that supporting the right-to-die provisions in I-1000 will be his last campaign. It's based on the law in Oregon, and because of Oregon we know that the safeguards work.
Initiative 1000 would allow mentally competent, terminally ill adults to request and self-administer medication in order to die on their own terms. The initiative is based on an Oregon law that has been in place for over a decade.
State Senator Darlene Fairley, a strong advocate for people with disabilities, has also added her name to the YES on 1000 effort, saying, "as a matter of personal control and autonomy, it makes sense to let patients themselves decide what kind of medical care they want to receive and how long they want to suffer with a terminal illness."
Between 60 and 70 percent of the funding to oppose death with dignity measures in other states has been financed by a small group of Catholic Church hierarchy; their opposition is expected again.
Like the Oregon law, the Washington death with dignity initiative includes numerous safeguards. Patients must be diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months, and they must be mentally competent and capable of making voluntary decisions.
Two physicians have to agree that these criteria are met. There is a required waiting period, and the terminally ill patient must make both oral and written requests. No one other than the eligible patient may administer the oral medication, and the patient may change his or her mind at any time.
These safeguards have proved effective in Oregon, where ten years of independent data shows no evidence of abuse or coercion. The safety of the death with dignity law has been confirmed by the Washington State Psychology Association, which found no evidence of manipulation or pressure on vulnerable groups and no so-called slippery slope.
Patients and families in Oregon also report that peace of mind is one of the law's greatest benefits. Decriminalizing aid-in-dying allows patients to have an open, honest conversation about how they want to spend their last days.
"Death with dignity is about being able to make your own end-of-life decisions without government interference," said Nancy Niedzielski, a volunteer with the YES on 1000 campaign.
Niedzielski became a supporter of death with dignity when her husband, suffering from brain cancer, was denied the option of dying on his own terms.
"He didn't feel that WashingtonState had the right to tell him that he had to continue to suffer. He asked me to promise him that I would change the law," said Niedzielski of her late husband Randy.
She personally gathered over 1,600 signatures for I-1000, and she was the last person to sign the petition today to put I-1000, the death with dignity initiative, on the November ballot.
"Terminally ill patients in Washington should have the same choices that they have in Oregon," she said. "It is a compassionate act to honor a person's final wish."
After the final signature was recorded Gov. Gardner, Nancy Niedzielski, and Arline Hinckley led a group of over fifty supporters into the Secretary of State's Office.
Supporters gathered outside in the lobby while they anxiously awaited the official receipt of the signatures by the Secretary of State's Office.
Thank you to EVERYONE, from the person who gathered one signature to Donald Knutsen who gathered 3,002, for an incredible finish to the first phase of this campaign.
Please look for our newsletter via email Thursday, July 3rd,with some final numbers and another email on Tuesday, July 8th, which will layout what you can do to help us deliver a victory for Yes on 1000 in just 127 days (As of Wednesday, July 2nd).
Thank you for your continued support,
Alex Morgan,
Campaign Manager,
Yes on I-1000 | 
