Colorado's Medically Assisted Suicide Law Quietly Underway
DENVER (AP) — Colorado's medically assisted suicide law is quietly underway, with an estimated 10 prescriptions filled since voters approved the law last year.
Colorado Politics reports that advocates say about 10 terminally ill people have received drugs to end their own lives.
Colorado last year became the fifth state to allow medically assisted suicide when 65 percent of voters approved Proposition 106.
Dozens of Colorado hospitals won't participate in ending someone's life. Doctors still can choose to write prescriptions in their offices and let patients die at home.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment plans to report by the end of the year how many doctors handled prescriptions, but it won't say how many people followed through. Advocates say about 1 in 3 people prescribed life-ending drugs don't take them.
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