Colorado Aid In Dying Ballot Effort Kicks Off

Proponents of allowing terminally ill patients to request life-ending medication officially launched a ballot effort in Colorado on Tuesday.

The initiative comes after the state Legislature failed two years in a row to act.

Proponents have been collecting signatures, but on Tuesday, they held a news conference and launched a website, coendoflifeoptions.org. They must collect 98,492 valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

Legislation made it through a House committee this year, but it did not have the votes to pass through the full House, so the legislation never came up for a full vote.

In the Senate, a separate bill was killed in committee. Another bill met a similar fate last year.

All hearings drew several hours of emotional testimony.

Similar to the legislation, the ballot effort asks voters to offer options to terminally ill adult patients with a prognosis of six months or less to live.

Two physicians would need to confirm the prognosis, patients would need to be mentally capable, the medication would need to be self-administered, two oral requests separated by 15 days and a third written request would be needed, and patients would have the right to rescind the request at any time.

Colorado would join five states with medical aid-in-dying laws.

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Colorado Aid In Dying Ballot Effort Kicks Off