Marlowe's Shade

Thursday, July 14, 2005

California Euthanasia Bill Defeated

From TODAYonline

Legislators in California have shelved plans to push through a socially explosive law that would allow doctors to help terminally ill patients commit suicide, officials said.

The Death With Dignity Act, which would have given dying patients the right to hasten their own deaths by taking a lethal but legally prescribed dose of medicine, was derailed, at least temporarily, by political opposition to the move.

The bill, which would have made California only the second US state to sanction euthanasia, failed to muster the 41 votes needed in the state assembly to pass it, its sponsors said.

"This is something we will not take up for the rest of this legislative session," said Crystal Strait, communications director for Democratic state assemblyman Lloyd Levine who backed the bill.

"Support is not quite there yet, but we had way over 30 votes so we were not that far off, but we want to do this right," she told AFP of the bill which tackles a highly divisive issue in US politics and society.

The bill, if passed, would make California only the second US state to allow physician-assisted suicide after the northwestern state of Oregon passed a similar highly-controversial law in 1997.

But supporters vowed not to allow the proposed law to die after religious and political groups strongly opposed the proposed law change, saying they would reintroduce it next January.

"This issue is so important that we need to take time to educate members. Death is a very difficult subject and the opposition did a good job of spreading lies and mistrust of what it does and does not do," Strait said.

Euthanasia has long been a hot-button issue in the United States, but it sprang to international attention in March when rival family members of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo fought bitterly over whether to allow her to die.

The California bill was very closely modelled on Oregon's assisted suicide bill which the administration of President George W. Bush strongly opposes.

The US Supreme Court has agreed to review Oregon's euthanasia law after an appeals court in May 2004 blocked attempts by the government to reverse it.

In a decision that angered Washington, the federal appeals court in San Francisco barred the US government from punishing physicians who take part in euthanasia in Oregon.

Sponsors of the California bill said they wanted to ensure that their law was not defeated in a vote as such a failure would fuel the administration's argument for opposing the Oregon law.

"When California does something, the rest of the country follows, so we want to make sure that we do it right," said Strait.

The bill would have allowed a mentally competent patient who is terminally ill with only six months or so to live the right to apply for a lethal doctor's prescription on condition they have been diagnosed by at least two doctors.

A survey conducted by the Field organisation in February found that 70 percent of Californians support the concept.

But opponents of the measure, including the Roman Catholic church and disabled advocates, strongly denounced plans to permit euthanasia and said they would kill the bill if it is reintroduced into the assembly next year.

"We will continue to strongly oppose this bill and will do our best to see that it dies if they reintroduce it in January," Molly Israel of Californians Against Assisted Suicide told AFP.

"There is no way to safeguard how such a law would be used and we fear it has the potential to be expanded to people with disabilities as well as the terminally ill," said Israel who is also a member of California Disability Alliance.

Advocates for the economically-struggling disabled people claim the bill allows cynical health officials a cheaper solution to long-term care for people facing expensive treatments for chronic pain and disability.

"This could be used as a cost-savings measure when they're looking at the bottom line for medical corporations," said Bill Jennett of Western Service Workers, a volunteer association of low-income disabled workers. — AFP Legislators in California have shelved plans to push through a socially explosive law that would allow doctors to help terminally ill patients commit suicide, officials said.

The Death With Dignity Act, which would have given dying patients the right to hasten their own deaths by taking a lethal but legally prescribed dose of medicine, was derailed, at least temporarily, by political opposition to the move.

The bill, which would have made California only the second US state to sanction euthanasia, failed to muster the 41 votes needed in the state assembly to pass it, its sponsors said.

"This is something we will not take up for the rest of this legislative session," said Crystal Strait, communications director for Democratic state assemblyman Lloyd Levine who backed the bill.

"Support is not quite there yet, but we had way over 30 votes so we were not that far off, but we want to do this right," she told AFP of the bill which tackles a highly divisive issue in US politics and society.

The bill, if passed, would make California only the second US state to allow physician-assisted suicide after the northwestern state of Oregon passed a similar highly-controversial law in 1997.

But supporters vowed not to allow the proposed law to die after religious and political groups strongly opposed the proposed law change, saying they would reintroduce it next January.


Kudos to the California assemblymen who opposed this and please keep fighting!
papijoe 7:13 AM
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