Bill on right to die gets new life
Legislation is repackaged as part of health care funding, but Brown may not support it
SACRAMENTO — Reigniting an emotional debate over whether doctors can help terminally ill Californians end their own lives, legislators on Tuesday revived efforts to pass a controversial right-to-die bill, which seemed destined for failure in the face of opposition from the Catholic church.
The new proposal, modeled after Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, is almost identical to the previous version: It would allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to mentally competent, terminally ill patients.
But it has been repackaged as part of a special legislative session on health care funding and, therefore, will bypass the Assembly Health Committee, where it stalled last month over growing personal and religious concerns from a group of
mostly Southern California Democrats.
“People are counting on us to win the freedom to end their life the way they choose,” Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton, coauthor of the legislation, said Tuesday at a news conference to unveil The End of Life Option Act, now AB 2x-15.
“We will use whatever means are available to us. We wanted this to go forward.”
But a spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown indicated Tuesday afternoon that the governor may not support the legislative maneuvering to push the bill forward as part of a special session on health care funding for the poor.
“This important issue merits careful consideration,” said Deborah Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the governor. “The process already well underway with the two-year bill, SB 128, is more appropriate than the special session.”
Opponents condemned the strategy and vowed to continue their campaign to defeat the effort, saying it devalues life and puts vulnerable people at risk.
“This is a heavy-handed attempt to force through a RICH PEDRONCELLI/ASSOCIATED PRESS Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton, said,“People are counting on us to win the freedom to end their life the way they choose.” bill that could not get any traction at all in committee,” said Marilyn Golden, co-chair of the Californians Against Assisted Suicide coalition. “It’s one thing to run roughshod over the normal committee and legislative process to jam through a district bill, but to do that on what is literally a life-and-death issue is clearly abusive and should concern all Californians.”
Church opposes bill
The California Catholic Conference, which represents Catholic churches across the state, has firmly opposed the legislation and has leaned on key Assembly Democrats, who are mostly Latino, to do the same.
But the new effort has enlisted a more diverse set of supporters, including the Latino leader of the Senate, the Latino caucus president, an African-American pastor and Latino labor leader Dolores Huerta.
“We are white, we are black. We are Asian. We are Latina. We are gay. We are straight. We are young. We are older. And we are all standing for compassion and for choice,” said Assemblyman David Chiu, DSan Francisco, the Catholic son of a doctor and a cosponsor of the measure.
Doctors can prescribe life-ending drugs in Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont, and more than 20 states have introduced similar legislation this year.
The issue has long been debated in California, but supporters of the bill were inspired by the story of Brittany Maynard, a 29-yearold UC Berkeley graduate and newlywed diagnosed with aggressive terminal brain cancer who moved to Portland, Oregon, to receive physician-prescribed medication to end her life last year.
At Tuesday’s briefing, Maynard’s mother, Debbie Ziegler, said that “the conversation in California about options for the terminally ill is not going away.”
Maynard’s widower, Dan Diaz, compared his wife’s peaceful death to the final five days of his friend Jennifer Glass, of San Mateo, who was unable to choose her own ending prior to her death from cancer earlier this month.
“Brittany took the control back from the tumor so she could have a peaceful passing,” said Diaz. In contrast, Glass experienced unbearable pain, so was prescribed morphine, an approach known as “terminal sedation,” he said.
‘A personal choice’
Eggman, a Catholic who is also a social worker and hospice volunteer, said she had discussed the issue at length with her bishop.
“We agree on most things. This is one of those things where we disagree,” she said. “My main takeaway from the bishop is that there is beauty and meaning in suffering. I told him: I agree with your choice to find that joy and meaning, but everyone may not desire that. It is a personal choice.”
The first stop for the new bill will be the Assembly’s Committee on Public Health and Developmental Services. A hearing will be held in a week.
Opponents criticized efforts to direct it to that committee, saying it doesn’t belong in a setting devoted to health care financing. “That should be truly frightening to those on MediCal and subsidized health care, who quite logically fear a system where prescribing suicide pills could be elevated to a treatment option,” said Golden, who also is a senior policy analyst with the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund.
But Capitol observers say the legislation’s toughest challenge won’t be procedural.
“If I had to bet one way or the other on it, I still think the bill will go down,” said John Pitney, a political expert at Claremont McKenna College. “The problem is, some members likely still think God is on the other side.”
Senate sponsors Bill Monning, D-Carmel, and Lois Wolk, D-Davis, defended the unusual strategy, saying time was of the essence.
Two recent court cases — one in San Francisco, the other in San Diego — also inspired them to keep trying, said Wolk.
“The judges there looked at the issue and said ‘aid in dying’ is something that the legislature needs to act on,” she said. “We believe that it is time.”