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April 25, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 8Oakland,
CA
Physician-assisted suicide bill clears
California Assembly committee
By Julie Sly
Catholic Herald editor
Legislation that would make California the second state
in the nation to allow doctors to help terminally ill patients commit
suicide passed the state Assembly Judiciary Committee, April 12, on a
5-3 vote.
The bill, AB 654, is modeled after Oregon’s seven-year-old physician-assisted
suicide law. Assemblymembers Patty Berg, D- Eureka, and Lloyd Levine,
D-Van Nuys, coauthored the measure.
It would allow patients with six months or less to live to request a prescription
for medication that would hasten their deaths. Once the request is made,
a series of steps would be required before the prescription was filled,
and the patient would have to take the drugs without assistance.
During the two-hour hearing, doctors, family members, legislative advocates
and the disabled spoke on both sides of the issue of doctor-assisted suicide.
Marilyn Golden, a policy analyst with the Disability Rights Education
and Defense Fund and the California Disability Alliance, said that disability
organizations have been almost unanimous in opposing assisted suicide.
While the bill’s supporters say it will have no impact on people
with disabilities, Golden contended, “They base this on the flimsy
requirement that you can clearly distinguish between who is terminally
ill with six months to live, and all the rest of us, who are supposedly
ineligible. In reality, there is no clear distinction between terminally
ill and chronically ill or disabled.”
She added that “anyone mistakenly diagnosed as terminal will be
vulnerable, even if they have meaningful years of life ahead, such as
people with new disabilities, who are apt to feel great despondency at
first.”
Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference,
testifying at the hearing on behalf of the state’s Catholic bishops,
said Catholics believe there is appropriate autonomy and responsible limits
to medical treatment.
“However, we firmly believe that it is never right to commit, encourage,
endorse or assist suicide for persons of any age or stage of life,”
he said.
AB 654 will not create a better California for the poor and vulnerable,
Dolejsi said.
The proponents of assisted suicide “now admit that the drive to
legalize this practice is primarily about personal autonomy and personal
choices,” he said. “But even they admit that it is a choice
for the very, very few…Those few who would ask you to change our
common understanding of suicide want you to do so for themselves, not
for the well-being of the community.”
The California Medical Association, which represents the state’s
doctors, also opposes the legislation.
“We have a clear understanding that our ethical imperative requires
that at all times we act in the best interests of our patients,”
said Dr. Michael Sexton, president of the organization, during the hearing.
“Our responsibility as a doctor is to work with patients to give
them the compassionate care they need. We don’t feel that ending
their life is consistent with that responsibility.”
Among the other organizations opposing AB 654 are the Alliance of Catholic
Health Care, the California Disability Alliance, the California Foundation
for Independent Living Centers, the California Hospital Association, the
Association of Northern California Oncologists, and the California League
of Latin American Citizens.
Supporters of the bill include Compassion and Choices, the American Civil
Liberties Union, the California chapter of the National Organization for
Women, and the Conference of Delegates of California Bar Associations.
Supporters of the bill testified that the Oregon law has led to improvements
in hospice care and alleviated suffering.
Proponents also contended the law has many patient protections. The bill
as proposed would require that:
—Two physicians agree that the patient has less than six months
to live.
—The patient make multiple requests and be counseled about the alternatives.
—Physicians determine that there is no mental illness.
—A conservator or family member not make the decision for the terminally
ill patient.
