California right-to-die bill stalls with Catholics opposed

Lois Wolk, D-Davis – who represents the city of Vallejo – and Bill Monning, D-Carmel, SB 128, the End of Life Option Act stipulates that only mentally competent adults with terminal diseases, who are residents of California, may request and obtain a prescription from their physician for medication.

But the controversial bill, the so-called End of Life Option Act, didn’t have enough votes to advance Tuesday in the Assembly Health Committee.

“However, we are continuing to work with the Committee members to ensure that when the bill is presented, they are comfortable with the measure”, he added.

The authors of the California legislation that would allow doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs lacked enough support to get through committees this year amid fierce religious opposition. Maynard, a 29-year-old San Francisco woman who had terminal brain cancer, moved to Oregon where she could legally end her life. She was diagnosed last summer with stage IV lung cancer and, reportedly, chemotherapy treatments have lost their effectiveness. The bill had already passed the state Senate, largely on party lines.

Maynard’s family has been coming to Sacramento in support of California’s bill, which faces opposition from the Catholic Church and other groups that say it amounts to assisted suicide and goes against the will of God.

A Gallup Poll in 2014 found that 69% of Americans support laws allowing doctors to “end the patient’s life by some painless means” if the person has an incurable disease.

That wasn’t enough to sway lawmakers on California’s Assembly Health Committee ahead of a bill deadline, so the legislation’s authors ended their efforts until next year.

The holdouts have included lawmakers from heavily Catholic districts in the Los Angeles area, where the archdiocese is actively opposing the bill.

“I am literally overwhelmed with sadness for the number of people and their families who will need to suffer in the interim”, says O’Donnell.

“We are going to see more serious movement in California, it is the most likely, and I do not see today’s situation as a loss”, said George Eighmey, the vice president of the Death with Dignity National Center who helped write Oregon’s 1994 law.

The legislation received a boost in May, when the California Medical Association became the first state medical association to change its position on the issue and dropped its opposition. The bill was also opposed by “Californians Against Assisted Suicide”, a self-described “coalition of disability rights, healthcare, civil rights and patient advocacy organizations”.

California’s bill was modeled on Oregon’s law, which has been used in more than 750 deaths since voters approved it in 1994.