SACRAMENTO, California — Physician-assisted “dying” became legal in California under a bill signed into law Oct. 5 by Gov. Jerry Brown.
The law, based on a similar measure in Oregon, allows terminally ill people to seek a doctor’s prescription for a lethal medication. As in Oregon two doctors must agree the person has only six months to live and is mentally competent.
In a rare statement, Brown, a former Roman Catholic seminarian, said he closely considered arguments on both sides of the controversial measure, which makes California only the fifth U.S. state to legalize assisted “dying.”
The bill was strongly opposed by religious groups such as the Roman Catholic Church as well as advocates for people with disabilities, who said unscrupulous caregivers or relatives could pressure vulnerable patients to take their own lives. Opponents also said the bill would invite insurance companies to take advantage of poor patients by offering to pay for the cost of life-ending drugs but not for the treatments that could save lives.
National and state surveys show majority support across all religious groups for medical aid in dying. A 2013 survey by Pew Research found that most said the moral right to die exists in cases of incurable disease (56 percent) or when a person is suffering great pain and has no hope of improvement (62 percent).
As written the law will expire after 10 years unless extended, a compromise with lawmakers who were worried about unintended consequences such as the targeting of the poor, elderly and disabled.
(RNS)
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