STAR-ADVERTISER
State Health Director Bruce Anderson congratulates John Radcliffe, the first Hawaii patient with terminal cancer to request a lethal prescription under Hawaii’s Our Care, Our Choice Act, at a news conference Wednesday.
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The recent flurry of articles regarding the state’s new medical-aid-in-dying law missed a glaringly ironic point.
Every article stresses that one of the safeguards of the law is that it only applies to individuals with a six-month prognosis to live. John Radcliffe, the most well-known proponent of the law, is now the first one to request a lethal prescription to end his life, even though he should not qualify for it.
Two years ago he admitted, “I should have died (of stage 4 colon and liver cancer) by July of 2016 and here it is February of 2017. So far, so good.”
On the inaugural exercise of this law, a crucial safeguard already is being disregarded, perhaps because the ability to predict the timing of one’s death is vastly overrated.
Bill Fong
Makiki
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