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NRL News
Another
Round in the Battle over Assisted Suicide in California Democratic legislators from the California Assembly joined forces at a February 15 press conference to announce the “California Com-passionate Choices Act.” AB 374 is essentially indistinguishable from a bill that failed in a senate committee last year, 3–2. The key difference is not substance but rather that this time around, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez has joined two other Assembly Democrats, Patty Berg and Lloyd Levine, as sponsors. “Is it important that the speaker is a joint author? It’s huge,” Berg told reporters. “It sends a clear message to all members of the Assembly that this is not only good policy, it’s good politics.” According to the Catholic News Service, “Levine and Berg are banking that Nuñez’s influence will sway lawmakers to legalize assisted suicide in California.” Currently, assisted suicide in the United States is legal only in Oregon. California sponsors say their measure is patterned after Oregon’s “Death with Dignity Act.” In 1992 California voters rejected an assisted suicide ballot—Proposition 161—by a 54% to 46% margin. Under AB 374 if a patient is diagnosed as having less than six months to live, he or she could ask a physician for lethal barbiturates. The individual would need to submit an oral and a written request, be declared mentally competent by two doctors, “be counseled about alternatives and wait through a cooling-off time,” according to the Oakland Tribune. Facing an even tougher battle this year, a coalition of pro-life, religious, and disability rights groups are gearing up once again. The coalition has included the California Pro-Life Council (NRLC’s state affiliate), the California Catholic Conference, the California Disability Alliance, and the California Medical Association. “These attempts to legalize assisted suicide have all been opposed by both Democrat and Republican legislators as well as groups including the California Disability Alliance, League of United Latin American Citizens, California Medical Association, California Foundation for Independent Living and the Alliance of Catholic Healthcare,” said Tim Rosales, spokesperson for Californians Against Assisted Suicide. Rosales told the weekly newspaper Tidings that just last October, “the California Medical Association [CMA] House of Delegates rejected an appeal by PAS [physician-assisted suicide] proponents to take a position of ‘studied neutrality’ and consider supporting ‘decrimin-alization’ of assisted suicide.” “After rejecting the pro-PAS resolutions, the CMA Delegates adopted resolutions reaffirming opposition to physician-assisted suicide,” Tidings reported. “The CMA also adopted a resolution recognizing the need for ‘appropriate end-of-life care,’ which may include aggressive treatment of physical pain, compassionate care for suffering, and eliciting and addressing a patient’s reasons for requesting physician-assisted suicide.” “Assisted suicide is not compassionate,” Ann Guerra, executive director of the FREED Center for Independent Living, a center for the disabled in the Sierra foothills town of Grass Valley, told the Associated Press. “It’s not a choice, not when the choice of adequate health care, adequate pain relief, in-home services are available, as well.” At least as of last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was against the legislature making a change in the law, suggesting he would veto such a measure if it came to his desk. “I personally think that this is a decision probably that should go to the people, like the death penalty, or other big issues,” Schwarzenegger said. “I think let the people of California make the decision. I don’t think that 120 legislators and I should make the decision.” |