Ex-gov's 'last campaign': Assisted suicide

OLYMPIA, Wash., Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Former Washington Gov. Booth Gardner has kicked off a campaign to put assisted suicide on the ballot in November.

The governor, who at 71 suffers from Parkinson's disease, said that the drive is his "last campaign," the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported. He filed papers with the secretary of state's office Wednesday on behalf of Compassion and Choices Washington.

Parkinson's disease would not make Gardner eligible for assisted suicide if voters approve the initiative, modeled on one adopted several years ago in Oregon. But he said that his illness has influenced him.

"I went from thinking I was indestructible to knowing that I was no longer indestructible," he said. "Not that all my decisions we're good by any stretch of the imagination, but I was still able to make them. Now I realize I can't do that ... the kids take over, the nurses and doctors take over, and you lose your autonomy."

Backers must collect 225,000 signatures on petitions by July to get the measure on the ballot.