Booth Gardner has/had a position (Proponent of) at Washington State Assisted Suicide Act

Title Proponent of
Start Date 2006-00-00
End Date 2009-00-00
Notes Aside from applying for superintendent of the Eatonville School District (a move that perplexed many and a position for which he was not ultimately chosen), Gardner kept a relatively low profile after leaving state office. That is, until he announced in 2006 that he would head up an “assisted death” initiative in Washington state. Washington voters in 1991 had rejected a measure that would have allowed doctors to write prescriptions to hasten death and administer lethal injections to terminally ill patients who weren’t able to take the medications on their own. The initiative that Gardner eventually championed was modeled after an Oregon law that, while allowing doctors to write the prescriptions to hasten death, said the patients must administer the medication themselves. Gardner was candid about how his own 1994 diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease affected the decision to get back into the political fray. “Since I’ve had Parkinson’s, obviously I’ve thought about the end,” he said in a 2006 Seattle Times story. “When the day comes when I can no longer keep busy and I’m a burden to my wife and kids, I want to be able to control my exit.” Ironically, the “Death with Dignity” initiative, which voters approved with nearly 58 percent of the vote, did not apply to the former governor because his disease is not considered terminal.
Updated over 3 years ago

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