In order to fully understand the many concerns about legalized PAS and PAD, consider for yourselves what has been said on the topic from the organizations that represent some important voices.

The Physicians - Both the American Medical Association and the Hawaii Medical Association stand in strong opposition to PAS and PAD. PAS and PAD are contrary to the physician's Hippocratic Oath, the governing standard of medical ethics for more than two millennia. This ancient Greek pledge ensures physicians will use their abilities to help patients, never to harm them and never to help them commit suicide. The AMA's Vice President for ethical standards has said:
"This is a defining moment in medicine. If doctors are allowed to kill patients, the doctor-patient relationship will never be the same again. If killing you is an option, how can I expect you to trust me to do all I can to heal you?"

The Nurses -- Both the American Nurses Association and the Hawaii Nurses Association make clear that participation in assisted suicide is a clear violation of their professional ethics. HNA has stated, "Central to our position is our respect for persons, our role to promote, preserve and protect human life . . . We question the logic that PAS is an ethical, humane response . . . "

Disability Rights Advocates - The goal of the organization Not Dead Yet is to "save the lives of people with disabilities." This group wants people to understand that there are no adequate safeguards that can protect the vulnerable from the abuse of PAS.

"When all facts are considered, any alleged benefit to a few through the legalization of PAS is far outweighed by the threat to the many people with disabilities, terminal and not terminal, who live in a society which devalues our lives."

It is a well-established fact that in the Netherlands, where physician-assisted death is practiced within the parameters of so-called safeguards, people are killed without their knowledge or consent. The concern about abuse and the slippery slope toward involuntary physician assisted death is such a legitimate one that it was cited by the United States Supreme Court in its 1997 unanimous decision declaring there is no constitutional right to physician assisted suicide.

The Hospitals - The Healthcare Association of Hawaii, which represents the state's acute care hospitals and two-thirds of the long term care beds, believes that all people are sacred regardless of their physical or mental condition and opposes the notion that a physician or any other person can assist an individual in taking his or her own life.

Hospice Organizations - First rate end-of-life care is the focus of hospice care, which focuses on pain management and symptom control. Fundamental to hospice care is the philosophy that each human life has value. PAS and PAD run directly contrary to those notions. Hospice believes that pain is controllable and uncomfortable symptoms can be managed - and that these are the things that deserve our attention.

Pro-life Organizations - These organizations believe in the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. They also believe that any right to assisted suicide will inevitably turn into a duty for many of our elderly people. Consider it for yourselves. Who among us wants to be a so-called "burden" on our families and on society? If PAS and PAD were legal, why wouldn't a vulnerable elderly person feel subtle pressure to remove himself or herself from the scene just a bit more quickly at the end of life?