Physician-assisted suicide occurs when a doctor writes a prescription for a patient, who has a terminal illness and is told they have only six months to live. The patient then must have the prescription filled at a local pharmacy and self-administer the drug, which in most cases occurs at home.  The physician is almost never present at the patient’s suicide.  The physician or another health care professional cannot administer the drug. The patient must consume the medication by themselves. The physician’s role basically ends once they provide the prescription to the patient. 

Terminal Illness is not clearly defined, and can be open to interpretation, such as removal of breathing and feeding support (applies to the disabled), voluntary refusal of food and drink, and anorexia.

Pain and suffering is not mentioned in the proposed legislation. Therefore, the state is declaring that EVERY person with a terminal illness and 6 month prognosis has such a low quality of life that it will weaken statutory protections for the patient and nearly eliminate the standard of care for doctors who prescribe the lethal suicide drugs.