A California appeals court on Friday reinstated a law allowing terminally ill patients to end their lives.
The ruling by the 4th District Court of Appeal allows the controversial law known as the End of Life Option Act to remain in effect, giving patients who have less than six months to live access to lethal medications from their doctors.
Opponents of the law have until July 2 to file a petition opposing the court’s decision.
Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra fought to reinstate the law in recent weeks with a court appeal. He celebrated the court’s most recent action Friday.
Last month, Judge Daniel A Ottolia ruled the law’s passage was unconstitutional because the Legislature approved the law during a special session dedicated to healthcare issues and this law wasn’t a healthcare matter.
Several attorneys and organizations such as the Life Legal Defense Foundation sued to have the law overturned.
Now, nearly 1 in 5 Americans live in a state where physician-assisted suicide is legal, according to Compassion & Choices.
In the first six months that California’s law was in effect, more than 100 people used it to end their lives. State data show 59% of them had cancer.
Full story at The LA Times.
So much lamenting over two recent celebrity suicides, yet here is a “law” to enable the supposedly terminally ill to do the same. Guaranteed, the pool of those “eligible” for assisted suicide will become ever larger and the state will ultimately decide who dies. Watch out, your turn is coming!
This one seems almost certain to reach the US Supreme Court.
A perhaps picky point. The population of California is just under 40 million. The US population is 325 million. A little fourth grade math says that is 12%, or one in eight. A bit less than the one in five cited in the article.
I don’t see any picky point. The article cites now nearly 1 in 5 (20%) of Americans live in a state where physician-assisted suicide is legal, or about 80% of Americans live in a state where physician-assisted suicide is not legal. You calculate 12% of Americans live in California (now with legal physician-assisted suicide.) Thus 8% of Americans live in a state with physician-assisted suicide that is not California. That is:
8% = Americans live in a state that is not California where physician-assisted suicide is legal
12% = Americans live in the state of California where physician-assisted suicide state is legal
80% = Americans live in a state where physician-assisted suicide is not legal
——
100% = All Americans
Richard, you are mistaken – There are 7 states, plus the District of Columbia where assisted suicide is legal: The DC swamp is joined by CA, HI, OR, WA, MT, CO, and VT in state sponsored killing. Keep watching, more states will soon follow.
Kristin, I made no claim to the accuracy of the numbers. I only asserted that the article’s “1 in 5” and mike’s “12%” statistics were not mathematically in conflict.
However, referencing the Wikipedia entry “List of U.S. states and territories by population”, the sum of the “Percent of the total U.S. population, 2017” column for those seven states and District of Columbia is 6.42%, as shown below:
HI = 0.44%
OR =1.27%
WA = 2.27%
MT = 0.32%
CO = 1.72%
VT = 0.19%
DofC = 0.21%
——————-
6.42% of Americans live in a state that is not California where physician-assisted suicide is legal.
The DEVIL at work, BIG TIME!!!!!!
California turn away from supporting and promoting the culture of death. Only the culture of life has a future. The culture of death will only lead to the death of a culture. Life begins at conception and ends at a natural death. Turn to a God of love and mercy before it is too late. Jesus Christ King of Kings Lord of Lords True God and True Man will come back in the near future like a thief in the night. Repent and convert. Pray America Pray. Pray Pray Pray.
America desperately needs a return to God and Christian Morality!
America needs all of you religious folks to read and understand the Constitution rather than focus on a fantasy world promoted by a two thousand year old fictional story. Ignorance is the real “devil” at work here.
I was not aware so many jurisdictions other than California had physician assisted suicide. Perhaps some other reader is willing to research the population numbers of each of these jurisdictions. That would determine if this makes up the ‘other’ eight percent.