Physician-assisted suicide became law today and doctors in Washington state can now help patients commit suicide.

Washington is the second state to legalize the practice after Oregon.

The law allows doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients.

Voters approved the bill last fall but a controversial group may have been behind the campaign.

The head of the Institute for the Study of Disability & Bioethics says it was funded by "Final Exit."

Georgia police recently arrested four of Final Exit's members for illegal assisted suicides.

"As more and more people see this in the media, as more and more people become aware this is happening, it will shift the debate where we no longer will say this is illegal or immoral or unethical," Mark Mostert, Ph.D., Regent University said.

Washington hospitals can still choose not to practice the procedure.