booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

of being praised for empathy and self-sacrifice, he stood accused of being on an ego trip
and plotting to bring back the glory days of the Third Reich. …Despite the accusations of
selfishness, Gardner would not be able to benefit from the law” because Parkinson’s is not
considered a terminal disease. The crux of the matter, Berger continued, is that the Oregon
law “restores the promise of choice, and sometimes that is comfort enough. … Gardner’s
law wouldn’t mandate anything. It’s not euthanasia; it doesn’t legalize suicide; it doesn’t
ask doctors to do the killing. It strings safety ropes across the slippery slope to prevent
abuse. It permits a type of self-administered care that gives dying patients a choice in
how and when they ‘go gentle into that good night.’ Rather than a narcissistic act,” Berger
wrote, “the chronically ill Gardner
is spending his remaining political
capital on what he calls his ‘last
campaign,’ one that restores the right
of adults to choose how they live right
up to the end.”
The battle over I-1000 also
raged in cyberspace, a far different
atmosphere than in 1991. But if the
blogs and Web pages intensified and
illuminated the debate, TV was still
the medium for the messages that Former Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts endorses I-1000.
Courtesy YesOn1000.org.
meant the most. And TV is expensive.
This time, the Catholic Church and the Knights of Columbus, the leading donors against the
earlier Washington initiative and the landmark 1994 Oregon initiative, were outspent by
more than $3 million. I-1000’s supporters raised about $4.9 million, its opponents some $1.6
million. Booth put his money where his heart was, writing checks totaling $470,000. Other
family members, notably Stephen and James Norton Clapp, and the Booth Gardner Legacy
Committee, contributed $300,000. Nevada multimillionaire Loren Parks donated $275,000,
while Compassion & Choices of Washington and its political action committee contributed
about $775,000. The Oregon Death With Dignity PAC donated nearly $1 million. The
opposition’s major donors were Roman Catholic dioceses and the Knights of Columbus.
Many observers believe the ad that sealed the victory was the one that featured
former Oregon governor Barbara Roberts. It emphasized that I-1000 was modeled after
the Oregon law. “The same exaggerations were made in Oregon as we passed a Death with
Dignity law here,” Roberts said. “None of those worst-case scenarios happened – none of
them.”
* * *
On November 4, 2008, Washington voted to become the second state in the nation
to allow aid in dying. It was a landslide: 57.82 percent in favor. Initiative 1000 was approved
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