California lawmakers send right-to-die bill to Senate

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The state Assembly, after an emotional and deeply personal debate, approved legislation Wednesday that would allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives, sending the proposal to the Senate, which is expected to endorse it.

It was the second effort by California lawmakers this year to allow doctors to prescribe life-ending medication after the highly publicized case of 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, a California woman with brain cancer who moved to Oregon to legally take her life.

Lawmakers from both parties invoked their religious faith in arguing for and against the legislation before voting 42-33 in its favor.

Assembly members were seen as the stumbling block to advancing the bill; the previous version had passed the Senate.

In response to those concerns, several changes were made to boost patient protections, including requirements that the patient be physically capable of taking the medication themselves, that two doctors approve it, that the patient submit several written requests and that there be two witnesses.

The earlier measure stalled amid religious opposition and hesitant Democrats. The renewed push comes after at least two dozen states have introduced aid-in-dying legislation this year, though none of the bills has passed.

The right-to-die movement has been galvanized by the highprofile case of Maynard, who argued in widely viewed online videos that she should have been able to access life-ending drugs in her home state. Doctors are permitted to prescribe lifeending drugs in Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana.

The California Medical Association earlier dropped its longstanding opposition to the bill.