Governor shows compassion by signing right-to-die bill — Mercury News editorial

Inland Empire leaders reacted swiftly Tuesday after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that no longer makes it a crime to allow terminally ill people to choose to end their lives in California. Brown says the emotionally charged bill forced him to consider what he would want if he was dying.

Brown said he wouldn’t deny those comforts to others. Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Vermont doctors can already prescribe life-ending drugs.

Marilyn Golden, a senior policy analyst with the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, said that assisted suicide laws could potentially let insurance companies coerce vulnerable people into a cheap and quick death. But there were many others like her. VIDEO: Brittany Maynard’s family pushes right-to-die bill in CaliforniaJennifer Glass of San Mateo died almost two months ago without a chance to end her own life with medication.

In a statement, Brown, a Democrat, said that he carefully considered the theological and moral implications of his decision.

Coombs Lee believes many other states will come around, encouraged by Maynard’s story and the example set by California. Bills offering patients the right to obtain deadly drug doses failed in the Legislature in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Based on Oregon’s numbers, if a similar law existed in California, which has a population about seven times that of Oregon, that number would be about 350 people, according to a committee analysis.

The move makes California the fifth state in the country to have such “right to die” laws.

Brittany Maynard of Alamo, a 29-year-old school teacher, was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in spring 2014 and aware that her rapidly growing tumor foretold a painful death.

“It exposes those without means and the ability to speak for themselves to the danger of having their life terminated for cost”, said Ken Barnes, with Californians Against Assisted Suicide. The group warned in an October 5 statement that people and families in the state could be harmed “by giving doctors the power to prescribe lethal overdoses to patients”. “In the end, it kinda comes down to the same thing for everyone – what options do I want at the end of my life”, said Toni Broaddus with Compassion & Choices.

The law can not take effect until the legislative session formally ends, which probably will not happen until at least mid-2016. Religious groups, especially those affiliated with the Catholic Church, lobbied passionately against the bill. “To offer them lethal drugs is a victory not for freedom but for the worst form of neglect”, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote in a 2011 memorandum on what it calls “assisted suicide”.