California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has appealed a judge’s decision to overturn the state’s law allowing doctors to prescribe life-ending medications to terminally ill patients who request it.
Judge Daniel Ottolia of the Riverside County Superior Court ruled that the state’s law, the End of Life Option Act, was passed unconstitutionally because it was done by the legislature during a special session intended to focus on healthcare.
Becerra filed an emergency request Monday asking for the law be allowed to stay in place until the matter could be decided by an appeals court.
“The enactment fell within the scope of the special session called, in part, to consider efforts to ‘improve the efficiency and efficacy of the health care system … and improve the health of Californians,’” the appeal, filed in the 4th District Court of Appeals, reads. “As the Governor indicated, the Act deals with pain, suffering, and the comfort of having the health care options afforded by the Act.”
Compassion and Choices, an organization that advocates for the passage of similar “aid-in-dying” laws in other states, filed an amicus brief.
“The most important message for terminally ill Californians and their doctors is that the law remains in effect until further notice, so terminally ill patients can still die peacefully, at home, surrounded by their loved ones,” said Kevin Diaz, national director of legal advocacy for Compassion and Choices. “We know this legal battle is far from over, but ultimately justice in the California court system will prevail.”
Under California’s law, patients must have no more than six months to live and must demonstrate to two doctors that they are mentally competent. The medication is ingested by a patient in liquid form, not administered through a needle by a doctor, as other countries allow. From June 2016 to June 2017, 504 people were prescribed the life-ending medication in California, but not all of them took it. State data show that 111 people took the drug in the first seven months the law was in effect.
Hawaii, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, Washington state, and the District of Columbia have laws legalizing the practice. Montana doesn’t have a specific law on the books, but the state Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that doctors could use a patient’s request for fatal medication as a defense against criminal charges.
Critics of the laws say that they eventually will target vulnerable groups including older adults, while supporters say that people who will otherwise suffer painful deaths should have the option to have more control over how they die.
“It is no surprise that those who are willing to advance policies like California’s Assisted Suicide law, and thereby put the lives of countless vulnerable people at risk, have no qualms about circumventing the legislative process,” said Matt Valliere, executive director of the Patients Rights Action Fund, which opposes medically assisted suicide.
