California has become the fifth state allowing doctor-assisted suicide, quadrupling the number of terminally ill Americans who can seek to end their lives.
The law that went into effect Thursday allows doctors to prescribe life-ending medications to patients diagnosed with terminal illnesses. California’s measure signifies new momentum for assisted dying advocates, who have used a widely circulated video by Brittany Maynard to build support for their cause.
Several major healthcare systems, including Kaiser Permanente and Stanford Health Care, are allowing their doctors to prescribe life-ending medications. Compassion and Choices, a group that championed the law, estimates that about 1,500 terminally ill Californians will avail themselves of such medications over the next year.
That’s a relatively small number of people, admits Matt Whitaker, Compassion and Choices’ California director. But he and other advocates stress that all terminally ill patients benefit simply by knowing they have the option of ending their life if their suffering grows too intense.
“Simply having the option gives them peace of mind that often has a palliative effect,” Whitaker said. “This law is spurring open, honest conversations among California families about end-of-life care options that were not taking place before.”
The California law requires that before a patient can be prescribed life-ending drugs, two doctors must agree they have six months or less to live. The patients must declare 48 hours ahead of time that they will take the drugs, and they must be able to swallow it themselves.
Polls have shown that about 65 percent of Californians support the law, but there are also many vocal opponents. Those include disability rights advocates, who say it could hurt some of the most vulnerable people by allowing insurance companies to possibly drive them to choose death over expensive treatments.
And while the California Medical Association is now neutral on the measure after opposing it for years, many oncologists testified against it, noting that patients diagnosed with terminal illnesses often live longer than expected.
Catholic hospitals are also opposed to the measure, based on their religious beliefs. Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles called on Catholics at the beginning of the month to spend nine days of prayer and fasting for the elderly, disabled and terminally ill, calling the assisted suicide law “a failure of our love.”
“This is a challenge to all of us, especially to all of us who have faith, to teach always about the infinite value of each human life,” O’Connell said at a Mass.
Oregon, Vermont and Washington also have laws allowing physician-assisted suicide, and it’s allowed in Montana by court order.
