The following comes from a July 7 San Jose Mercury News article by Jessica Calefatij:
In a startling turnaround for a measure that just weeks ago appeared to be headed for easy passage, the sponsors of SB128 conceded this morning that they don’t have the votes on the Assembly Health Committee to move the highly controversial legislation, which had already cleared the state Senate.
The bill would have allowed mentally competent, terminally ill patients to end their own lives by obtaining a prescription for medication from physicians.
“We continue to work with Assembly members to ensure they are comfortable with the bill,” the statement said. “Seven out of every 10 California voters want to see this bill become law. For dying Californians, like Jennifer Glass, who was scheduled to testify today, this issue is urgent. It is urgent for Christy O’Donnell, for Michael Saum and hundreds of other Californians. We remain committed to passing the End of Life Option Act for all Californians who want and need the option of medical aid in dying.”
A cadre of young Latino legislators from Southern California who sit on the Assembly Health Committee broke ranks with their party on the issue.
When the California Medical Association removed opposition to the bill, it seemed destined to pass in a progressive state that considers itself on the leading edge of cultural trends.
The Senate last month passed the measure 23 to 15 — with all but one of the Democrats present supporting it, and all Republicans opposed.
The first Assembly hearing in the Health Committee was delayed in late June until today; 10 votes are needed to move the bill forward — and only six or seven are guaranteed. The 19-member committee has 13 Democrats.
But while conservative and rural Central Valley Republicans were the traditional opponents, lobbyists against SB128 pressured at least five Democrats to join their ranks.
PRAISE BE TO GOD!!!
GOD HEARD OUR PRAYERS AND THE LEGISLATORS HEARD OUR PHONE CALLS AND RECEIVED OUR LETTERS!!!
AND THANKS TO OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE, WHOM I AM SURE, WHISPERED IN THE EARS OF THE LATINO DEMOCRATS TO DO WHAT HER SON WANTED!!!
WE MUST STAY VIGILANT ALWAYS.
We won this one by a hair. Surprisingly, a few Democrats voted the right way. What can we do to encourage them to continue? Sending them money seems like a bad idea, as I highly doubt that they will vote correctly on issues such as marriage, nascent life, religious freedom, etc., but this victory was far narrower than it should have been. What now?
This bill was defeated by Hispanic Catholics and Hispanic lobbyists. The key to defending both the Church and life in the United States will likely be this demographic which culturally is pro-family but whose values are under assault. As such, the Church desperately needs to re-evangelize this group for its survival.
The media is crediting Archbishop Gomez, and rightly so!!!!!
His full statement is excellent and shows insight for the death politics of the Democratic Party.
https://calwatchdog.com/2015/07/05/dem-split-stalls-right-die-bill/
I really liked Archbishop Gomez’s statement. It made him 7 feet tall.
https://www.angelusnews.com/voices/archbishop-gomez/dying-with-dignity-in-california-8154/#.VZ0y-_nzC1u
The L.A. Hispanic DEMs need Gomez for immigration, so they helped him stall the death bill and gave him recognized clout.
If you want to kill yourself, to require that a doctor become the accomplice to murder.
California is my birth place, and where much of my family still lives. I relocated to Indiana ten years ago, but I’ve tried to keep up with developments there. It’s a sad story as I watch it unfold, one disgrace after another – seemingly without any letup. It isn’t impossible to reverse trends, but it takes constant toil, effort, and one must endure a lot of failure before reversing the advancement of such pure evil. You need leadership and a lot of dedication. In my heart I hope it can happen, but it is awfully discouraging to see these things get worse and worse yet..
Yes, thank god but stay alert because the death and dying people are not through, yet. There are other bills supporting their goals, one of which did pass yesterday, SB 10 by Lois Wolk sets up a PIKST form registry and expands the ability of assisted suicide and palliative care only proponents to aggressively sell their agenda to the vulnerable. Palliative care only means that, regardless of the stage of the so-called terminal illness, a patient, or any healthy person, can choose an early, planned death by refusal of all food and fluids and receiving, instead, medical profession support to die by starvation and dehydration aided by pain-killing drugs. These patients are doing exactly what the death and dying promoters want, anyway, one…
Thanks be to God!
Thank God, and Archbishop Gomez for standing up for Church teaching. As I said before, it is dangerous to make killers of doctors. Where will it end? Better pain killing techniques until the person is actually going through the dying process is the answer. Early death by dehydration and starvation is very painful, too, as is mentioned above.
Yaa!!!!!!, ding-dong the wicked bill is dead! Hi Ho the Dario, sing it high and sing it low, ding dong the wicked bill is dead!