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Maine Physician-Assisted Death Referendum (2019)
| Maine Physician-Assisted Death Referendum | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 5, 2019 | |
| Topic Assisted death | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Referendum | Origin Citizens |
The Maine Physician-Assisted Death Referendum was not on the ballot in Maine as a veto referendum on November 5, 2019.
The veto referendum would have repealed Legislative Document 1313 (2019), which was written to allow adults suffering from a terminal illness to request medications that can be self-administered to end his or her life.[1]
Text of measure
Ballot title
The ballot title would have been as follows:[2]
| “ |
Do you want to reject the new law that allows terminally ill adults to use a legal process to end their own lives?[3] |
” |
Full text
The full text of Legislative Document 1313 (LD 1313) is available here.
Background
Legislative Document 1313 (2019)
Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed Legislative Document 1313 (LD 1313) into law on June 12, 2019. The Maine House of Representatives passed LD 1313 in a vote of 73-72 on June 3, 2019. The Maine State Senate passed LD 1313 in a vote of 19-16 on June 4, 2019.[4]
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Maine Physician-Assisted Death Initiative
The organization Maine Death with Dignity proposed a ballot initiative to legalize physician-assisted death in Maine in April 2018.[5] On June 12, 2019, Maine Death with Dignity announced that while 72,000 signatures were collected, the organization would not file signatures due to the passage of LD 1313. The statement said, "A parallel effort Maine Death with Dignity initiated in May 2018 gathered over 72,000 valid signatures and would have taken the question to ballot in 2020 had LD 1313 failed."[6]
Physician-assisted death in the United States
As of 2020, physician-assisted death was legal in nine states and Washington, D.C.
Vermont (2013), California (2015), Washington, D.C. (2016), Hawaii (2018), Maine (2019), and New Jersey (2019) legalized physician-assisted death through the state legislative process.[7][8][9][10] Oregon (1994), Washington (2008), and Colorado (2016) legalized physician-assisted death through the ballot initiative process. In Montana (2009), the state supreme court ruled that physician-assisted death was de facto legal in the state.[11]
Physician-assisted death ballot measures
The first state to vote on a physician-assisted death ballot measure was Washington in 1991. Between 1991 and 2019, there were eight ballot measures addressing physician-assisted death in seven states.
Voters rejected Washington Initiative 119 in 1991, which would have legalized assisted death in cases of terminal conditions. Californians defeated a similar initiative, Proposition 161, in 1992. Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted death in 1994, when voters passed Measure 16. The Oregon State Legislature asked voters to repeal the measure via Measure 51 three years later, but voters rejected the legislature's proposal.[12]
Voters in Michigan rejected an assisted death ballot measure, Michigan Proposal B, in 1998. Voters in Maine rejected a ballot initiative, Maine Question 1, in 2000. Voters in Massachusetts also rejected a ballot initiative, Massachusetts Question 2, in 2012.
Following the defeat of a ballot initiative in 1991, voters in Washington again addressed the issue in 2008, with a vote on Initiative 1000. Voters approved Initiative 1000.[13] In 2016, voters in Colorado approved Proposition 106, a physician-assisted death initiative.[14]
The following table illustrates the outcome of each physician-assisted death ballot initiative:
| State | Initiative | Year | Percent “Yes” | Percent “No” | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | Initiative 119 | 1991 | 46.40% | 53.60% | 
|
| California | Proposition 161 | 1992 | 45.87% | 54.13% |
|
| Oregon | Measure 16 | 1994 | 51.31% | 48.69% | 
|
| Michigan | Proposal B | 1998 | 28.88% | 71.12% |
|
| Maine | Question 1 | 2000 | 48.67% | 51.33% |
|
| Washington | Initiative 1000 | 2008 | 57.82% | 42.18% |
|
| Massachusetts | Question 2 | 2012 | 48.87% | 51.13% |
|
| Colorado | Proposition 106 | 2016 | 64.87% | 35.13% |
|
| Average | 49.09% | 50.91% |
Path to the ballot
Process in Maine
In Maine, the number of signatures required to qualify a veto referendum for the ballot is equal to 10 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election. Signatures are due 90 days after the adjournment of the legislative session at which the targeted bill was passed.
The requirements to get a veto referendum certified for the 2019 ballot:
- Signatures: 63,067 valid signatures were required.
- Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was September 18, 2019.[15]
If enough signatures are verified, the targeted bill goes on the next election ballot at least 60 days away as a referendum.
Stages of this initiative
Kandyce Powell, executive director of the Maine Hospice Council, filed the veto referendum after the 2019 legislative session adjourned on June 20, 2019. The veto referendum was approved for signature gathering on July 11, 2019.[2] On September 18, 2019, Carroll Conley, executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, released a statement, which said, "I am disappointed to announce our efforts to give Maine’s voters a choice to reverse recent legislation legalizing tax-funded abortions and physician-assisted suicide have fallen short on both counts."[16][17]
See also
External links
Legislation
Footnotes
- ↑ Maine Secretary of State, "Legislative Document 1313," accessed July 15, 2019
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Maine Secretary of State, "Citizens Initiatives & People's Veto," accessed July 15, 2019
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Maine State Legislature, "LD 1313 Actions," accessed July 15, 2019
- ↑ Fosters.com, "Death with Dignity measures move forward in Maine," December 2, 2018
- ↑ Maine Death with Dignity, "Press Release: Mainers with Terminal Illness Gain a Dignified Option for Life's End," June 12, 2019
- ↑ USA Today, "Permanent version of Vt. assisted suicide bill signed," May 20, 2015
- ↑ NPR, "California To Permit Medically Assisted Suicide As Of June 9," May 10, 2016
- ↑ Washington Post, "A year after D.C. passed its controversial assisted suicide law, not a single patient has used it," April 10, 2018
- ↑ U.S. News, "Medically Assisted Suicide Becomes Legal in Hawaii," April 5, 2018
- ↑ Montana Supreme Court, "Baxter v. Montana," December 31, 2009
- ↑ New York Times, "Assisted Suicide Comes Full Circle, to Oregon," October 26, 1997
- ↑ New York Times, "First Death for Washington Assisted-Suicide Law," May 22, 2009
- ↑ The Denver Post, "What you need to know about Colorado’s new Aid in Dying law," November 9, 2016
- ↑ If signatures are submitted before the 90-day deadline but less than 60 days from the November 2019 election, the referendum would appear at the next statewide election instead.
- ↑ Portland Press Herald, "Maine vaccine opponents submit ‘people’s veto’ petitions," September 18, 2019
- ↑ Dropbox, "Statement 9-18," September 18, 2019
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