Dying made easy. (euthanasia referendum in Washington state election)

THIS ELECTION season, residents of Washington state are seeing some unusual ads. In one, a young girl is sobbing outside an intensive-care unit, plaintively crying, "My father never thought he'd have to die this way." He is inside, comatose, festooned with a complex web of IV tubes snaking from mouth and nose, nearly buried under a mass of hightech medical machinery. The ad urges voters to pass Initiative 119, which would make Washington the only place in the world where active euthanasia was sanctioned by law.

Leading the way for Initiative 119 is Washington Citizens for…