California legislative panel approves ‘aid in dying’ bill News
California legislative panel approves ‘aid in dying’ bill

[JURIST] The California Senate Committee on Health [official website] on Wednesday approved legislation [SB 128] that would allow physicians to provide lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients to accelerate their deaths. The approval of SB 128 comes after two failed attempts to pass similar legislation. The measure must now be delivered to the Senate Standing Committee on Judiciary [official website]. The bill is entitled the End of Life Option Act, and it authorizes adults who meet certain specified criteria “to make a request for medication prescribed […] for the purpose of ending his or her life.” Further, the bill would provide, under special circumstances, for “an interpreter declaration to be signed subject to penalty of perjury, thereby imposing a crime and state-mandated local program” for individuals who seek to circumvent the law.

The right to die [JURIST news archive] has been a contentious issue in the US and around the world. In February the Supreme Court of Canada struck down [JURIST report] the country’s ban on medically assisted suicide. Also in February a group of patients and doctors filed a lawsuit in a New York court requesting a declaration [JURIST report] that physician-assisted suicide is not illegal under state law. In 2006 the US Supreme Court upheld Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act [JURIST report], making Oregon the only US state that allowed assisted suicide at that time. Vermont, Washington, New Mexico and Montana now allow assisted suicide as well. Possibly the most contentious right to die case ended in 2005, when Terri Schiavo [JURIST op-ed] passed away following a heated legal battle between family members on whether to artificially maintain her life in a vegetative state.