Suit says UCSF reneged on giving cancer patient end-of-life drugs

In one of the first legal actions involving California’s “right to die” law, the family of a deceased cancer patient is suing UCSF Medical Center, alleging the system did not appropriately aid the woman in ending her life.

The San Francisco Superior Court suit, filed by attorneys for the family of Judy Dale on July 7, claims that Dale’s caretakers at the hospital told her they would assist her in obtaining medication to help her die — but then suddenly backtracked.

Dale succumbed to her terminal cancer in September 2016, according to the lawsuit. She did so without the medication that would have killed her on her own terms, the suit says.

California’s End of Life Option Act went into effect in June 2016, a landmark and controversial piece of legislation that allows terminally ill adults to obtain medication to end their life if certain conditions are met. Among them: The patient must make two oral requests to a doctor that are spaced at least 15 days apart, as well as a written request.

Doctors are not legally obligated to participate in the procedure. In a statement, UCSF did not comment specifically on the lawsuit, citing the pending litigation.

The hospital said it was one of the first in the state to develop a protocol for complying with the state law, adding that it “respects” the right of its physicians to opt out at their discretion.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, also names the University of California Board of Regents, among other UCSF-connected entities.

As Dale grew sicker over the summer of 2016, the lawsuit claims, her doctors told her “over and over” that they would dispense the aidin-dying drugs for which she had asked.

But the suit claims that on Aug. 18, a social worker of Dale’s told her that her doctors would turn down her request.

When Dale was discharged from the hospital near the end of the summer, she tried each day until her death to obtain a prescription from another doctor, the suit states. She never did.

“Judy’s final weeks were brutal,” the suit said.