For the past five years, state health officials have been tracking a program that allows terminally ill patients to obtain a prescription to end their lives should they so choose.
A new report on the Our Care, Our Choice Act, which went into effect in 2019, shows the latest statistics across the state. The most frequently reported underlying illness is some form of cancer.
The state reported 76 patient deaths in 2023, up from 55 in 2022. However, the statistics include people who received a medication but may not have used it.
"Generally speaking, across states who have medical aid in dying programs, the working number is about two-thirds ingest, one-third do not. So they die either of their underlying illness or some other reason," said Lorrin Kim, who leads the Department of Health's Office of Planning, Policy and Program Development.
"That said, it is universally reported, anecdotally, that even though patients do not ingest the medication, they take great comfort in knowing that it's there, that they have another option, that they have a sense of control over a time in their life where an illness may be exerting more control over their lives than the patients will."
Kim said patients are becoming more aware of the program, and health care providers are becoming more comfortable facilitating the program. He said it was initially difficult to convince providers that they had a "critical role to play" at the end of a patient's life.
"Many of them said, 'This is not what the Hippocratic Oath means, I didn't go to medical school to help people die.' So it was a very difficult personal and professional choice. The value of the Our Care, Our Choice Act, is that it protects providers, who follow all of the steps, from prosecution or other legal consequences," Kim said.
Hawaiʻi is one of 10 states, plus Washington, D.C., that allow physician-assisted death.
The DOH urges anybody considering the program to speak with their health care provider immediately.
This interview aired on <i>The Conversation</i> on July 12, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
