Assisted suicide is already legal in California through the so-called End of Life Option Act, narrowly passed by the California Legislature and signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2015. The bill received opposition from both Democrat and Republican Assembly members and state senators but was passed, many feel inappropriately, during a special legislative session focused on Medi-Cal funding.
Despite the bill’s narrow passage, now just a few years into the new law, proponents of this law want to eliminate the very “safeguards” they used as arguments for its passage. The new bill, Senate Bill 380 by Sen. Susan Eggman, will get rid of the scheduled 2025 review process that doctors, patient advocates, and legislators allowed for an examination of California’s experience with this controversial law. This new bill will eliminate the 15-day safety period to receive the deadly prescription drugs.
During the 2015 debate regarding assisted suicide legalization and the End of Life Options Act, former state Sen. Bill Monning (and bill author) noted in publication Healthline that, “the joint and co-authors on this bill…endeavored to build in protections in this [measure] that are stronger than any of the states where this has been practiced.” Monning’s statement was far from the truth because the narrowness and limited data required by his bill about how assisted suicide was to be implemented along with how and where patients are really protected, is a big part of many of these problems today.
The Death with Dignity Center, proponents of the End of Life Option Act, contradict this new effort to eliminate “safeguards” with this note on their current website FAQs, “Death with dignity statutes contain a number of safeguards, protecting patients from abuse and coercion…the patient must make two oral requests, at least 15 days apart.”
But in this new bill, these proponents want to eliminate the very “safeguard” they hold up.
This rush to erode assisted suicide “safeguards” included in the 2015 End of Life Option Act is not only unwise public policy, but there is simply no data or science to support removing these “safeguards” so soon.
Annual reports on the End of Life Option Act law required by the state of California do not contain any data whatsoever regarding complications, reasons for requesting the lethal drugs and, for the limited data provided, much is listed “unknown.” Over the past year we have become all too familiar with how important medical and scientific data are in making informed public policy decisions; especially decisions involving life and death.
The latest California annual report on the End of Life Option Act law released in July 2020, reported that 10% of those requesting the lethal drugs had an “Unknown” insurance coverage, and it was “unknown” whether 7% ever received information about hospice or palliative care options.
In a March 2021 New York Times interview of Dr. Diane Wright, longtime director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care at Mount Sinai Hospital noted, “All the heartfelt adherence to restrictions that are announced when you first get the public to vote in favor of this go up in smoke once the practice is validated.”
The annual reports on the End of Life Options Action do not in fact, provide sufficient data to determine whether these restrictions or as proponents called them “safeguards” are being followed. And now with SB 380’s “safeguard” elimination, these “safeguards” they touted were simply a ruse to get the original law passed….
The above comes from an April 21 op-ed piece in the Orange County Register by Matt Valliere, executive director of the Patients Rights Action Fund.
This is the way they operate. Get the camel’s nose in the tent. Just like they did with civil unions for gays. Now look what they do. They are liars. They can’t help themselves. They lie as a strategy to get an inch then they take a mile.
Well, they aren’t “taking” a mile. They are going back to the legislature.
I think the point is that the original law never would have passed without the safeguards. So it’s easier to get the law they really wanted, without the safeguards, by passing it with safeguards and later removing them to get the original law they originally wanted but couldn’t have succeeded in getting as they originally wanted it.
Killing is not compassionate care, it’s just murder. There’s no compromise with Culture of Death extremists who are fighting to Kill everyone they can, with or without “consent”.
Sick and depressed people bullied into accepting “My Murder, My Choice”. Purely demonic!
Sick and depressed people really are being bullied into “My Murder, My Choice”– That is truly demonic. No moral consciences at all, in these extremely immature and immoral lawmakers.
Please, get off the box and compassionately understand why people decide to end their life. They may feel they have no other choices and hope. The criticism and self-righteousness only makes a person who feel they have no hope more determined. Telling someone they are wrong but does not provide them better choices does not help but maybe make it worse for them. What good is to tell a hungry person to hope, pray, and have faith, if we do not help feed them? Or debate about the immorality of their choice when they are in so much pain and agony, What outcome would you get when you try to debate with a drunk? Try to make a wise decision while your hand is burning. How many worse situation happen as we rush because we are late, only to make matters worse and we are even more late. As Jesus has taught us, it is easy to be nice to someone who is nice. How difficult to be moral when faced with pain and suffering? Our problem is not the law or the politicians.