As of Monday, October 5, 2015, California became the fourth state in the U.S. with a state law allowing doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medications to terminally ill patients, thanks to a former Jesuit seminarian, California Governor Jerry Brown, who signed the bill into law.
Rejecting the logic, reasoning and pleas of Catholic bishops, other religious leaders, medical doctors, champions of disability rights and others who opposed the legislation, Gov. Brown, age 77, says he decided to sign the bill after pondering his own mortality.
The president of the pro-suicide group that calls itself Compassion & Choices, Barbara Coombs Lee, hailed Brown’s decision as “the biggest victory for the death-with-dignity movement since Oregon passed the nation’s first law two decades ago. Enactment of this law in California means we are providing this option to more than 1 in 10 Americans.”
But Brown ignored warnings that some people would be pressured into suicide, said state Sen. Bob Huff (R-San Dimas).
“Let’s call this for what it really is: It’s not death with dignity. This is state-assisted death, physician-assisted death and relative-assisted death,” Sen. Huff continued.
“This is a dark day for California and for the Brown legacy,” agreed Tim Rosales, a spokesman for Californians Against Assisted Suicide. “As someone of wealth and access to the world’s best medical care and doctors, the governor’s background is very different from that of millions of Californians living in healthcare poverty without that same access—these are the people and the families potentially hurt by giving doctors the power to prescribe lethal overdoses to patients,” Mr. Rosales added.
The coalition of Californians Against Assisted Suicide is considering its options, which may include a lawsuit and a referendum.
Similar legislation was defeated in California by the voters in 1992. And earlier this year, 2015, it was defeated in the state Assembly by all Republican legislators (who cited moral objections), and by some Democrat legislators (who cited religious views or experiences in which family members who were given months to live by doctors but who had instead lived for years).
What many news outlets are not mentioning is that California’s physician-assisted suicide bill was resurrected several weeks ago in a special session called under the pretext of finding funding for healthcare programs. Gov. Brown did express dismay that it was hastened through a special session of the legislature and not approved by the majority of state Assembly members (not that this prevented the governor from signing it into law anyway, however).
Other states with laws that allow physicians to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients are: Oregon (1997), Washington (2009), Vermont (2013).
Two more states do not have such a law, but do have court precedent that is cited by advocates: Montana (2009) has a court case ruling that doctors are protected if they write a lethal medication prescription per a terminally ill patient’s request and in New Mexico (2014) a judge ruled that residents who are terminally ill have a constitutional right to obtain aid in dying, however New Mexico’s attorney general is appealed the ruling.
Read More:
- Los Angeles Times: www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-gov-brown-end-of-life-bill-20151005-story.html
- Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article37818555.html