State Sen. Fred Risser, D- Madison, and state Rep. Frank Boyle, D-Superior, want to give Wisconsin's terminally ill patients the right to ""die with dignity"" in a proposed bill.
The two legislators are circulating a bill that would allow a doctor to prescribe a dying patient life-ending medicines. The bill would end the ""individual's life in a humane and dignified manner,"" according to an official draft.
According to the bill, only patients suffering from a terminal disease confirmed by two doctors and expected to die within six months would be eligible to request euthanasia.
Pro-Life Wisconsin has publicly denounced Boyle and Risser's physician-assisted suicide bill, saying the group ""strongly opposes"" it.
""We need to focus on killing the pain, not the patient,"" said Matt Sande, director of legislation for Pro-Life Wisconsin.
Sande said a compassionate response to terminal illness includes prioritized care, emotional support and psychological and physical counseling—not assisted suicide.
""This is death with dignity, it's not suicide,"" Risser said in a statement regarding his prior attempts to pass similar bills.
Risser and Boyle have circulated similar ""Death with Dignity"" legislation in previous years, but such bills have never received a vote in either the state Assembly or Senate.
""I guess [Boyle's] thinking 13 is a charm, because he has introduced this 13 other times,"" said Rita Marker, attorney and executive director for the International Task Force On Euthenasia and Assisted Suicide.
Marker said her organization sees plenty of these ""Oregon clone"" bills introduced in states nationwide. To date, Oregon is the only state that permits physician-assisted suicide. And groups like Marker's and Pro-Life Wisconsin want to keep it that way.
Polls and focus groups have shown that people tend to have a problem with the words ""assisted suicide,"" according to Marker.
""The advocates have gone back to the drawing board ... if they do not call it assisted suicide, it tends to be far more acceptable to people,"" Marker said.
