SPOKANE -- Even though Washington voters have approved Initiative 1000, giving terminally ill people the option of medically assisted suicide, many local doctors are staunchly against it.

KREM 2 News

Many local health care providers oppose the new assisted suicide law.

The measure, patterned after Oregon's "Death with Dignity" law, allows a terminally ill person to be prescribed lethal

medication. The medication would be self-administered.

Supporters, led publicly by Democratic former Gov. Booth Gardner, say the initiative will provide a compassionate way for sick people to die. Gardner has Parkinson's disease, a disorder that affects motor skills. He would not be eligible under I-1000, since Parkinson's is not considered terminal.

So far, every local health care provider KREM 2 News has talked to in the Spokane area will not offer it to patients.

Providence Health Services released a statement for Sacred Heart Medical Center:

"We do not support physician-assisted suicide. This position is grounded in our basic values of the respect for the sacredness of life... and the respect for health care professionals.

We believe that people are stewards of their own lives, we may not unduly prolong nor hasten the natural process of dying."

Hospice of Spokane, which cares for the dying, will not participate in assisted suicide either.