California plans appeal after judge overturns assisted-suicide law
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Wednesday his office will seek expedited review of a decision overturning the state’s physician-assisted suicide law.
Judge Daniel Ottolia of Riverside County overturned the law, the End of Life Option Act, on Tuesday, report the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the Sacramento Bee and the Associated Press.
The law, which took effect in 2016, allows people with less than six months to live to obtain drugs from their physicians to end their lives.
Ottolia said passage of the the law during a 2015 special session called to address health-care funding violated the California Constitution’s requirement that special-session bills be related to the topic of the session. The proposed law had previously been held up in the Assembly Health Committee, but backers revived it as part of the special session, allowing it to bypass that committee.
California was the fifth state to pass a right to die law. At least 111 people have used the law to end their lives, according to the Mercury News.
A Los Angeles Times editorial says the law “sets sensible, protective and moderate rules to ensure that terminally ill people are not coerced or persuaded to end their lives.” Protections include multiple examinations and a doctor’s determination that the patient will die within six months. The law also ensures that patients are capable of making the decision to die.
