Myriad safeguards
Stephen Woo’s letter (Tribune-Herald, Your Views, April 8) posits that the newly enacted assisted suicide law “fails to safeguard the interests of the vulnerable and elderly.”
Perhaps Mr. Woo has not thoroughly read the legislation, which includes many, many safeguards, including the requirements that the patient make multiple requests through time in the presence of others who can attest to his or her frame of mind. And this only after meeting strict criteria as to the state of his or her disease, as attested to by more than one physician.
Perhaps Mr. Woo is unfamiliar with the fact the Hawaii Senate committee investigating similar legislation last year failed to find a single instance of abuse in other states where such legislation has been enacted.
Perhaps Mr. Woo is likewise unfamiliar with the study done by the Des Moines Register, a conservative newspaper in a conservative area, which looked at more than 1,600 cases of assisted suicides in Oregon and California in the past 20 years and failed to identify any problems other than six recordkeeping shortcomings, two of which were failures to keep records in states where such recordkeeping is not required.
Mr. Woo need not avail himself of the provisions of this legislation, but his opinion will now, thankfully, not keep me and others like myself from this opportunity, if we so elect, for a safe, compassionate, dignified death at the time and place of our choosing.
Stephen Gross
Hilo
Hike the GET
I want to see taxes increased. Yep, I said it.
Taxes are not a penalty. They are an opportunity to support this island and its people who, in turn, provided me the opportunity to lead the lifestyle I desire.
We all need to pony up. The general excise tax increase is the best way to do this.
Jake Dickey
Hawaiian Acres