Rebekah Tracht’s letter to the editor (Reporter, Sept. 24) says that “no human being has a right to decide the value of another man’s life.” She can believe this and still vote yes for I-1000.

You cannot qualify for Washington’s Death with Dignity Law unless you are terminally ill and mentally competent. It is a choice the patient must make independently, approved by two different physicians with many other safeguards. It is self-administered only.

In 10 years of the law in Oregon, 300 people have used the medication to end their suffering, but over a thousand applied for and qualified for the prescription. Those people had the means and the legal right to decide the ending of their lives in private.

I urge you to read the data from a decade of Oregon’s law.

If you have seen someone you love writhing in pain without an end in sight, you might too work without pay on this campaign so others have options should they choose to exercise them.

This is why I am voting yes on 1000.

– Kristin Kennell