LOS ANGELES (TIP): California is set to become the sixth American state to approve euthanasia, a controversial issue in the United States fueled by the recent suicide of a woman suffering from terminal cancer.
“This is a historic step forward for Californians with terminal illnesses who have been looking to the legislature for the option to determine the quality of their final days of life based on their own personal beliefs,” said Senator Bill Monning, one of the backers of the bill approved by the state assembly on Wednesday.
The measure, approved by 43 votes against 34, is expected to be adopted by the state senate this week.
Euthanasia, or assisted suicide, has long been a controversial issue in the United States, with Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington the only states to have approved it so far. The topic was brought to the forefront in California by the case of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old with a brain tumor who moved from San Francisco to Oregon and took her own life last November. “Her case brought the story to the public in a way that hadn’t been done before,” said Monica Schmalenberger, an aid to California Senator Lois Wolk, a supporter of the euthanasia bill. Another woman suffering from leukemia is suing the state of California demanding the right for doctors to assist terminally ill patients end their lives.
Your source
has done you a disservice. Assisted suicide is a homicide in Montana. Our MT
Supreme Court ruled that if a doctor is charged with a homicide they might have
a potential defense based on consent. The Court did not address civil
liabilities. No one in Montana has immunity from civil or criminal charges.
Does that sound legal to you? Oregon model bills have been rejected by our
legislature in 2011, 2013 and 2015 because of gapping loopholes that expand the
scope of abuse of elders and folks with disabilities of all ages. Passage would
have established dangerous public policy.
In Oregon
and Washington heirs are allowed to participate from the start to the end,
eviscerating intended safe guards. Everyone involved in the lethal process gets
immediate immunity and family members are not required to be contacted. A
witness is not required to confirm the dose was self-administered so if they
struggled and changed their mind who would ever know? In addition these laws
prohibit investigations or public inquiries leaving no recourse for surviving
family members who were not contacted. Does that sound like good public policy
to you? This is very dangerous public policy that does not serve the common
good.
It serves the health insurance corporations very well. All of
these loopholes are embodied in California’s ABX2-15. A veto is in good order.
Oregon and
Washington should amend their initiative-sound-bite driven dangerous laws.