California Assembly Approves Legislation to Legalize Assisted Suicide

The California State Assembly passed a bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide on Wednesday.

According to a report by Reuters, the bill is likely to be approved by the state Senate, but Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif., has not made his position on the bill known.

The bill, ABX2-15, requires a patient seeking life-ending drugs to make a series of “oral and written requests for an aid-in-dying drug.”

It stipulates that the patient must be physically capable of administering the drug him- or herself, and that the physician be provided “immunity” from assisting in the preparation of the drug and “civil or criminal liability solely because the person was present when the qualified individual self-administered the drug.”

The bill would make it a felony “to knowingly coerce or exert undue influence on an individual to request a drug for the purpose of ending his or her life.”

Opponents of the bill expressed opposition to ending human life.

The next pro-life cause comes barreling at us. https://t.co/6XiaZPwGDe — jdmullane (@jdmullane) September 10, 2015

Assisted-suicide lobby pushes to pass a new “right to die” law in CA: an easy cover for elder abuse and murder. Stand up for life. #prolife

— Michael Hackard (@MichaelHackard) August 18, 2015

The devastating impact of physician-assisted suicide on the profession of medicine http://t.co/IUcoJ9Ju8g #prolife #zerosuicide — Jewels Green ? (@Jewels_Green) August 18, 2015

To California, and Everyone, please remember life is a precious gift. Assisted suicide is assisted killing. #ProLifepic.twitter.com/6avFOMbxTn

— FrRichardGonzales ? (@fr_gonzales) September 10, 2015

Advocates of the bill argue that it will allow “death with dignity.”

My closing remarks on the End of Life Option Act, which passed the Assembly today. #DeathWithDignityhttp://t.co/pqsS6b3gFL

— Asm. Susan Eggman (@AsmSusanEggman) September 9, 2015

According to the Los Angeles Times, Dan Diaz, the husband of Brittany Maynard, an advocate of legalized assisted suicide who passed away last year, was in attendance at Wednesday’s debate.

“There is a sense of pride in the Legislature,” Diaz told the Times. “Today it reaffirmed the reason Brittany spoke to begin with. The Legislature will no longer abandon the terminally ill where hospice and palliative care are no longer an option. They can have a gentle passing.”

The bill’s passage coincides with a campaign by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, called “National Suicide Prevention Week,” from Sept. 6-12, 2015.

According to Reuters, assisted suicide is currently legal in four states—Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Vermont.