 This is Stink Tech, Hawaii. Community matters here. Getting the journey is dedicated to exploring the options and choices for the end of life care. And to assist people to talk about their wishes. It's time to transform our culture so we shift from not talking about dying to talking about it. It's time to share the way we want to live our lives at the end of our lives. And it's time to communicate about the kind of care we want and don't want for ourselves and our loved ones. We believe that the place for this to begin is not in the intensive care unit. But together we explore the various paths to life's endings. Together we can make these difficult conversations easier. Together we can make sure that our own wishes and those of our loved ones are expressed and respected. If you're ready, please join us as we navigate the journey. And today, today's a special day. We are going to talk about medical aid in dying. Last month, October marked 20 years since Oregon's death with dignity law went into effect. And for those of us committed to seeing medical aid in dying in Hawaii that can work and to achieve the same successes that Oregon has. Oregon's law paved the way for authorization in five other states in the District of Columbia since then. And we, Hawaii, still have work to do to ensure that medical aid in dying in Hawaii find support in the 2018 legislative session. So our goal here as it has been for the last 20 years is to allow people to have this choice. Today I have with me my friend Scott Foster who is the director of the Hawaii Society for Death with Dignity. And he has been on the path working day and night to make sure this happens in Hawaii. He, if I get this, hopefully I get it right. You feel telephone calls, you talk to people about it, people that are in those last few days of life that want comfort that are looking for help. Did I get that right? Well, yes. We have two goals. Most of the time we're there to receive phone calls and emails from people who have either received a six month terminal diagnosis or family and friends of people who have received such a diagnosis. Because it, getting that pronouncement just as a broadside to people. Oh, I'm sure it is. We're never prepared to begin to prepare to die. And believe me, it was not my lifelong learning to be dealing with this as hands on as I have been because I do have many other interests and issues. But the most important thing we do from day to day is be there when someone needs advice and counsel and basically our experience of navigating this journey with so many other people. Our second mission, which is certainly as important, is to pass a law in Hawaii. Yes, last month was the 20th anniversary of the Oregon law. But we had been working and we, I stand on the shoulders of many great people, A.Q. McElrath, A.A. Smeiser, Folly Hoffer. The list goes on of people that brought me to the issue. And they're all gone now. So this is really about nearly my 30th year of being involved in this issue. And for several years before we ever thought of introducing a bill, which was in 2002. So here we are almost 20 years now since it was introduced. And there's still a hold up. And as you may remember, the audience may remember. Anyway, the last session, or the first part of this session, it passed the Senate with flying colors, only two or three people. Two said absolutely no and one with reservations. And yet it came right down to the last vote in the House and it was deferred. So we go back at it again. So tell me now, for anybody that's new, that hasn't been with us for the last many years, tell us what is the bill? What does the bill do? What's in the bill? The bill is based on... Because we're talking about the bill, like everybody's supposed to know what the bill is. The medical aid and dying bill, which is now being called. People try to avoid using the word death, but it's the death-with-thing-the-mill. Okay, let me do this. So for anybody that wants to... It is SB 1129. Even though it is an SB, but it's in the House. Correct. So if they want to look it up to see exactly what it says. It's SB 1129. Right. So what happened? Well, politics as usual. And frankly, we're never going to get this law passed until more people get actively involved. And not that there aren't any. There's thousands across the state. In fact, the latest poll two years ago was 80% of Hawaii's registered voters support the law. Enter the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church preaches it from the pulpit. Do not pass this bill. The Catholic Church has the red mass just a few weeks or a week before every legislative session. And it's populated with Catholic legislators. Is it just Catholics or what about the evangelicals in the family forum? Yes, the Hawaii family forum is against it as they are against women's right to choose, sex education in the schools. It's definitely the conservative religious organizations, but it's led by the Catholic Church. And the Bishop of all Hawaii stands in the pulpit during the session and preaches against it. And all the other parish priests preach against it. And here they come. It doesn't matter that we have very credible ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, the drug policy forum of Hawaii, various medical and nurses organizations. It's absolutely a shame that religion gets in the way and it's very subtle. It's never mentioned. But that's it. Period. Into the story. There's always a letter from the Bishop in the testimony that goes around. You stop and look at the composition of the legislature of all the religions. It's overwhelmingly Catholic. And I respect the Catholic faith. I respect the right for people to practice their religion. But please stay out of my personal choice and yours and anyone else who would like to have the ability to decide their fate for themselves. It seems to me that what I remember from all the years of Catholic education, but in the Bible it is clear that God gave us free will and free will was to choose. So the church says, OK, in the Catechism and all these, it says these things are spelled out that you really shouldn't do. But you have a free will. You have choice. So you can either follow along and do the right thing or you don't have to do it. But it all comes down to free will and choice. And the Constitution of the United States gives us the ability to choose. The Bible gives us ability to choose. So how is it that they now stand in the way of my choice? Well, it's the same bunch that stood in the way of marriage equality for the gay community. Very same people. I mean very same people, very same legislators testifying against it. And it's all coming from the Catholic Church. And again, I respect the Catholic Church, but they are the organization that funds and blocks it every year. And they use their behind the scenes power with the individual legislators. Well, what about the Mormons and what is it, the city of hope or whatever? But the Mormons are as big as the Catholics. Well, they're against it too, but they're not quite as visible. We don't know who's a Mormon, is that it? Yeah, it's much more different. But when you see the letter from the bishop on the letterhead of the Catholic diocese, that's pretty clear. What about turnout? Do they turn out a lot of people? Oh goodness, yes, they hire buses and bring them in. So they fill up the room, right? The mob. So if I'm a legislator and there's five of us and there's hundreds of these people in their shirts with a cross on them, you know who's in the room. And they see, it's usually a color, our group wore yellow the last time and they wore a dark blue. It used to be red. They used to wear their red shirts, but they realized that that was kind of inflammatory color, so they toned it down. But it just doesn't matter. Our constituency, for the most part, are older, better educated, wealthier, and also because of their age, many of them are not able to physically come down there and be present. So it doesn't matter how many people we have there, experts in their fields, testifying in favor, all the legislators see is that sea of blue shirts. Well, Scott, my dear friend Scott Foster, we need to take a break and we'll be back in a minute and then let's talk about the details of the bill, what it says and what it doesn't say. Okay? Yes. This is Stink Tech, Hawaii, raising public awareness. This is Stink Tech, Hawaii, raising public awareness. Aloha. I'm Prince Dijk, the volunteer host of the Prince of Investing. Think Tech is important to me because it brings Hawaii's number one financial literacy show around the globe. For the first time, Think Tech Hawaii is participating in an online-based fundraising campaign to raise $40,000. Thanks to Think Tech will run only during the month of November and you can help. Please donate what you can so that Think Tech Hawaii can continue to raise public awareness to promote civic engagement through free programming like mine. I've already made my donation and look forward to yours. Please send your tax deductible contribution by going to the website www.thinksforthinktech.com. On behalf of the community enriched by Think Tech Hawaii, 30 plus weekly shows, thank you Mahalo for your generosity. Hi, we're back. And I'm talking with my dear friend Scott Foster, who is the director of the Hawaii Death with Dignity Society. And just so you know, it's not just the two of us. There are more people in the organization. And in fact, you just went to the Big Island for a meeting, didn't you? I did a few weeks ago. I kept hearing about this group that was meeting on the Big Island and trying to connect with them. But I had a hard time tracking them down and I finally did. And I flew over to Hilo to meet with them and I was absolutely amazed. This is an ad hoc group on the Big Island. I want to read their title Hawaii Citizens for End of Life Choices based in Hilo. And they're getting ready for their third town, what they're calling town hall meetings on Tuesday, November 21st at 5pm. I don't know where it is, but I'll be putting that on our website later. Well, ask them when you do if they will do Facebook Live so we can watch. Because that's easy, Facebook Live. Yeah, I'll suggest that. But Big Island is a big place and I think this next meeting is in volcano. I couldn't be wrong. But what's exciting about this is the caliber of people who have just come together spontaneously. The head of it is an advanced practice nurse. And one of the original members of the governor's blue ribbon panel on death and dying, which is kind of a famous thing in this movement here, is involved with them. So they've got some great people over there and so that's exciting. At least, this is my thought, the Big Island has the most progressive legislators than any county in the state. They do. Are they involved in this? Yes. In fact, the meeting I attended was at a young legislator's home. That is what? Chris Todd? Chris Todd. Chris Todd's home. And he is on the health committee. I'm not sure and he's not sure whether he will be on the next health committee. He went into that hearing last year, last session, for it, supportive, heard a lot of the negative testimony against it. They never got a chance to vote so we don't know what the vote would have been. And we can talk about that later. The fact that the chair of the health committee was protecting her members and she wouldn't allow a vote to be taken. Frankly, I'd rather they had voted whether they voted it up or down. At least we would have known, which leads into a conversation about the politics and we can get back to that. Well, so this whole thing about passing it out of that, well it didn't pass, deferred it, means that it's still alive and it comes back to the health committee. Now my understanding is the chair, who was not the chair then, but the chair now is representative John Mizuno and that he has to request that it come back. I thought once it was in the committee it just stayed there, but I was told that didn't work. Well, I think that that's how it historically has been, but this is a new leadership in the house and as you know they took Speaker Suki chair out, Speaker the House out along with John Mizuno who was the vice speaker and so he is now the chair of the Health and Human Services Committee which the two committees have been combined. I do not understand his reluctance just to say I'm going to hear this but I don't know, you know he's playing politics too. My understanding is that all of the chairs have to request certain bills and leadership says yay or nay and they have a committee that decides on who gets what, which is strange. Yes, that may or may not be true. Well, we had a young man on last week that was telling us about he's the chair of that committee and that they take a poll of all of the legislators and the ones, the bills that come up to the top, they are the house priority. Well, of course, position eight and dying was the number one priority of the Democratic Party of Hawaii and the legislature has historically ignored the Democratic Party of Hawaii and this is an election year. They are going to say they don't want to hear any of these hot button issues because it's an election year but I would warn them that the Democrats are probably better organized than the press would lead you to believe and there will be a price to pay at the polls next year. But I think that because it's an election year, if they don't stand up for something they're going to lose. The reason we have Donald Trump as president is because he took a stand. I don't like his stand, you don't like his stand, but he took a stand and he has, and the people that voted for him like the fact that somebody stood up to the power structure and if this bunch doesn't see that, there will be a lot of Donald Trump's elected. If they don't see that if they don't stand for something, even if it's wrong, they need to take a stand. Very few of them ever stand for anything unless it's an overly popular issue. Everybody stands for the environment. Everybody stands, you know. We think they do, but they didn't pass the oxybenz on the suntan lotion because corporations bought them off. A copper tone is owned by bear and bear just bought my sandals. But there are some who stand for the environment. But they couldn't pass it. But they couldn't pass it. And so... Look, Martian, it's up to those people out there. And what I want those you people, I want you, every one of you, to write to Representative John Mizuno at the House of Representatives and write, don't call, write. We want it in writing that you must pass this bill. You must hear it. It must be number one on your agenda. And you must hear it now. We have to have a sense of urgency, as much as I like John, but we need to force him. We need to push him. I don't know how else to say that. Well, he needs to be able to demonstrate the leadership that he's catching hell from his constituents. And everyone write, and there are several levels of what people can do. They can either gripe about it to their friends and do nothing, or they can go down to the legislature and meet their legislature, meet their senators and representatives, and then they can make phone calls, and they can write, and they can write testimony, and they can write testimony and be there to deliver it. Now, not everybody has the time to do it, but it is a numbers game. Take any one of those suggestions, any one of them, and John represents Kalihi. That's one of the largest districts on this island. Yes, and it also has the largest population of Catholics. But he stood up to the church, because he belongs to one of the Protestant churches. He stood up to the church on marriage equality. He did. His wife was upset with him, but he stood up to it. So that means he can do it. He's capable of standing up to it. But you, his constituents, have to force him into doing this. If we're going to insist that he take a stand, you've got to give him something to stand on. 2018 is sort of a defining year in my mind. The election of Trump and all the problems that we're seeing there has consumed people's minds with fear and trepidation. North Korea going to abomb us. Is Trump going to make a fool of himself when he travels abroad? All those things. But we've got to bring that angst and anger, the focus back to where we can make a difference. And that is the Hawaii state legislature. And we can. Yes, and we can. And it's up to everyone in the audience, every single person who has an interest in good government can get involved today. Not in January. Not in January. Today. Starting today. They're down in their offices now. Their staff is down in their offices. If you go in or call or write a letter or send an email, they will know. They will know. And they keep track of it. They do count. There's one, two, three, four, five. And then the page fills up, four and against. That's how it works. So it. We want you. No vote. No grumble. We do. You have to do this. And. And it's. Well, we are talking about medical aid and dying. However, there are other bills also. If you want. The same process. Oh, absolutely. We're not talking just about death with dignity. We are talking about any, any issue that you have an interest in. The process is we're talking about, and that is direct contact to your Legislature. I'm stunned every session to find out how many people do not even know who their elected representatives are. And yet they're the first to stand up on a soapbox and start preaching and griping. And I usually ask, well, who is your senator? Who is your house member? Oh, I don't know. Okay. Oh, don't tell me that. Listen. Oh, God. Now. Do right. Call. Go down there. Do whatever you need to do to make sure they know who you are and that you, your vote counts and you, you pay their salary. Remind them of that. That you, me, us, the taxpayers pay their salary. And with that, we will go and we will see you at the Legislature. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha.