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OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington State activists have tried twice to make their state the second in America to allow legal physician-assisted suicide. But since 1997, Oregon has been the only U.S. state where it is legal.

Booth Gardner wants to try again.

The 71-year-old former Washington governor, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, said Jan. 9 that getting the necessary 225,000 signatures by July would be his “last campaign.”

When he filed a physician-assisted suicide initiative to be placed on the November ballot, he stated it is “the right thing to do; the Christian thing to do.”

The Catholic Church would disagree with him. The Compendium of the Catechism says (in No. 470): “The fifth commandment forbids as gravely contrary to the moral law … suicide and voluntary cooperation in it, insofar as it is a grave offense against the just love of God, of self, and of neighbor.”

Gardner is modeling the bill after Oregon’s assisted-suicide legislation, allowing terminally ill patients the ability to kill themselves with the help of a lethal prescription. Parkinson’s is not considered a terminal illness, though, and Gardner would not be eligible under the bill.

His primary sponsor, Compassion and Choices Washington, a state chapter of the renamed Hemlock Society, has created the coalition “It’s My Choice.” The non-profit has raised $319,000, and is hoping to amass a war chest of around $5 million.

It has the support of a number of sympathetic organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union.

But even with support from major organizations, and impressive financial gains early in the campaign, Gardner’s effort is not winning instant approval, starting with his own son, who disapproves of his father’s involvement.

Current Gov. Christine Gregoire, though sympathetic to the former governor’s health problems, finds it “very, very difficult to support assisted suicide.”

The Washington State Medical Association officially opposes the initiative, according to spokeswoman Jennifer Hanscom. She explained that the organization “looks at it from the standpoint of how care should be improved at the end of life so people aren’t forced to make that decision.”

Other medical associations against the initiative include the Washington Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the Washington State Hospital Association.

Washington was the first state in the country to have an assisted-suicide initiative, which was defeated in 1991 with a well-organized campaign. The lessons learned there helped stop similar legislation in California and other states. It also prompted the American Medical Association to start continuing education courses for physicians in pain management and palliative care.

Legislation for physician-assisted suicide has failed in 25 states, often repeatedly, since 1991. This year it has reappeared for the sixth consecutive year in the Arizona Legislature, and in Wisconsin’s Legislature for the 16th time. Neither bill is expected to be made into law anytime soon.

The “Coalition Against Assisted Suicide” is now working to raise funds and awareness across the state. Its members include disability rights advocates, physicians, nurses, hospice workers, minority groups, religious organizations and other concerned citizens.

Coalition spokesman Duane French is a quadriplegic who heads the Washington chapter of Not Dead Yet. Paralyzed by a diving accident as a teenager, French believes that such an initiative “opens the door for abuses.”

He said recently: “I have experienced discrimination and I know assisted suicide, if it becomes legal, will be another way of discriminating against people with disabilities with deadly consequences.”

In contrast to Gardner’s mantra: “My life, my death, my control,” French believes that “voters in Washington state care too much about equality to judge whose life is ‘worth’ living and whose isn’t.”

But Compassion and Choices’ Executive Director Robb Miller believes that physician-assisted suicide offers patients peace of mind.

He said: “We believe in aggressive care and offer comfort for patients, [knowing] that if things become unbearable, they have the option to decide how and when to die. We know people get a lot of comfort if they have this option.”

Father Robert Siler, spokesman for Bishop Carlos Sevilla of Yakima, argues that assisted suicide is anything but comforting. He was quoted in a January article in the Yakima Herald saying that: “This is an assault on the dignity of human life. We should allow people to die a natural death and help them with appropriate pain control and what measures are necessary.”

Elenor K. Schoen writes from

Shoreline, Washington.