December 26, 2016 10:55 AM UTC

Top Ten Stories of 2016 #10: Medical Aid in Dying Sails Through

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• by: Colorado Pols

One result of the 2016 elections in Colorado that actually closely matched pre-election forecasts was the overwhelming passage of Proposition 106, a measure establishing a process of medical aid in dying for terminally-ill patients whose diagnosis has been confirmed by at least two physicians. With the passage of Proposition 106, Colorado joins a handful of other states and countries like Oregon and The Netherlands with similar laws.

Opposition to Proposition 106 primarily emanated from the religious community, with the Catholic Church funding an ad campaign largely patterned on a successful effort to defeat a similar initiative in the heavily Catholic state of Massachusetts. But Colorado is not Massachusetts, and even with a factually questionable Denver Post editorial against the measure, Proposition 106 passed by the broadest margin of any Colorado statewide ballot measure this year–nearly 65% of the vote, a lopsided result surpassed only by the defeat of the ill-fated “ColoradoCare” initiative Amendment 69.

We draw a similar conclusion from Proposition 106’s passage to the repeated defeat of anti-abortion ballot measures in Colorado, and even the legalization of marijuana by popular vote–our state’s Western, social libertarian values. Those values form an electorate in our state for such measures that crosses party lines as well as disagreements on many other issues.

In Colorado, we truly do live and let live–and let die, with dignity.