SACRAMENTO - A bill that would legalize assisted death in California for terminally ill people overcame its biggest obstacle in the Legislature on Wednesday, passing the Assembly, where it faced significant opposition but was approved after an emotional debate.
Several Assembly members spoke through tears as they recounted the loss or near loss of their parents or child, saying those experiences drove them to their decisions about how to vote on the controversial legislation, which passed 43-34.
"This is about respecting the choices of those we love the most," said Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Salinas, who choked up as he talked about his dad's terminal illness and how it influenced his decision to co-author ABX2-15.
One assemblywoman who opposed the bill, Cheryl Brown, D-San Bernardino, argued that people sometimes outlive a doctor's projection. She said that doctors had once told her that her son was dying and she should "give up." He was taken off life support and is alive today, she said.
"What about those in the disability community?" Brown said. "I can see someone coming in and saying you know, your disability is so bad why don't you take this pill and leave us? ... California doesn't need this. We don't need this."
Lawmakers who supported the bill embraced after the legislation passed. The bill now heads to the state Senate, where it is expected to win approval - a previous version already passed there. That previous bill, however, stalled in an Assembly committee and appeared doomed until a last-ditch effort revived the issue under a new bill in a special session.
Governor noncommital
If approved by Friday, the last day to pass bills this session, the measure will head to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not said whether he will sign it.
The bill is modeled after a similar law in Oregon, and would require that two California physicians agree that a mentally competent person has six months or less to live and can be prescribed a lethal dose of drugs to end his or her life sooner. The patient would then decide whether and when to take the prescription. Those who do so would have to ingest the drugs on their own, without assistance from another person.
Amendments added in recent weeks would require that patients affirm 48 hours in advance of taking the drugs that they are doing so of their own accord. The law would expire in 10 years.
The legislation gained momentum after 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, an East Bay woman with brain cancer, told her story about moving to Portland, Ore., last year so that she could take advantage of that state's Death With Dignity Act, which was established in 1997. In her final days, Maynard called for California to pass a similar law.
"The more people that hear what Brittany went through, the more people are reminded what this is really about," said Dan Diaz, Maynard's husband. "Brittany simply wanted to have a gentle passing. So many times the arguments in opposition are unrelated to that. It just boils down to, should a person like Brittany, who is terminally ill, whose dying process is going to be horrible, should she have the option to have a gentle passing? For her, the answer was yeah, you can have that, but you have to move to Oregon."
Diaz watched the Assembly vote from inside the Capitol, expressing relief that the bill had cleared its biggest hurdle.
3 GOP supporters
Opponents of the bill include the Catholic Church, some disability rights organizations and the Association of Northern California Oncologists, which said the bill runs contrary to the physician's oath to do no harm.
The bill has been steadfastly opposed by Republicans, but three supported it, including Catharine Baker, R-San Ramon, who said it was "nothing short of cruel" to deny dying patients a peaceful ending. Baker's district includes Alamo, where Maynard lived before she moved to Oregon to die.
"This bill is about those who are in the final days and hours of their life - they are going to die - and whether or not they will die painfully, suffocating, drowning or starving," Baker said. "Or will they die with a peaceful safe option."
Opponents pointed to well-publicized cases in Oregon where they said the law failed. They cited the case of Barbara Wagner, who in 2008 was a 64-year-old woman with lung cancer when she was denied an expensive drug prescribed by her doctor to prolong her life. Instead, her insurance company offered to pay for several other drugs, including the one for physician-assisted death.
"It is chilling," said Assemblyman Donald Wagner, R-Irvine (Orange County). "Fighting for life, fighting for quality of life, fighting for medical care for qualify of life, that's the direction we should be going."
Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez
0 Response to " Bill That OKs Aid In Dying Advances In California "
Post a Comment