With some women holding posters asking, “Why do you want me to die in pain≠” the Million Geezer March at the state Capitol fell about 999,900 participants short of what the name suggested.

The 100 people who attended the rally in late January urged Arizona lawmakers to consider legislation similar to Oregon’s “death with dignity” laws.

John Abraham, executive director for End of Life Choices Arizona, said the march was organized to demand a hearing for a bill offered by Rep. Linda Lopez, D-29, that would give immunity to doctors willing to prescribe lethal doses of medications to end the lives of terminally ill patients.

The chairman the House Health Committee, Rep. Doug Quelland, R-10, has said he will not give H2314 a hearing. Mr. Quelland said he wants to give time to bills that have a chance of passing. It has been referred to House Health and Judiciary committees.

Mr. Quelland said his committee was assigned 93 bills this year, and lawmakers would be in session “until November” if each bill received a hearing.

While all committee members want their bills to be heard, he said, he does not give priority to bills that likely will not have enough votes to move out of the Health Committee.

“I won’t hear bills that only have three votes,” Mr. Quelland said.

Polls

Mr. Abraham said a poll conducted by Northern Arizona University’s Social Research Laboratory found that more than one-half of respondents favored legislation that would allow terminally ill patients to end their lives.

The 2003 NAU study surveyed 400 randomly selected Arizonans over the phone on the topic of physician-assisted suicide. The study found 57 percent believe doctors should be allowed to assist patients living with incurable disease and in severe pain to end their lives. An additional 5 percent would support legislation if minor changes were made, the study found.

Mr. Quelland said he has seen surveys stating the opposite.

For terminally ill patients in rural Arizona, the situation is especially dire, supporters of the bill say. The choice of facilities for end-of-life care are few in small communities, with families often having only one option for their families when considering professional health care.

When health insurance requirements are factored in to decisions for end-of-life care, advocates for Ms. Lopez’s bill argue, family members often have to make difficult choices about whether to care for their dying loved ones themselves or trust the approved health care provider but likely lose the ability to make decisions about pain management.

During the Million Geezer March, Liz Anderson, a marriage therapist in Prescott, said she watched her mother-in-law and her father-in-law die painfully despite her best efforts to keep them comfortable.

Billie Stockl of Sierra Vista said she watched her husband die slowly from cancer in 2003. Ms. Stockl said that while her husband received excellent care in Sierra Vista, he suffered horribly as doctors were unable to give him sufficient medication to ease his pain in his final days.

Ms. Lopez said she would remain steadfast in her support for legislation, saying she will push the bill every year and will not make any changes to the bill to dilute its intentions.

Joe Ferguson is the Don Bolles Fellow in the University of Arizona Journalism Department. He is spending spring semester of his senior year covering rural and suburban issues at the state Legislature for the journalism department’s Community News Service.