H
HagiaSophia
Guest
The divisive and emotional clash over doctor-assisted suicide swept from Oregon into California on Friday, with lawmakers from the Bay Area and Southern California rallying support at the Capitol for a similar law here but also plowing into building resistance.
Their planned legislation, first brought to public light by The Daily Review last November, would make California only the second state in the nation to legalize physician-aided death.
“If I become terminally ill and doctors are unable to save me, I want the freedom to leave this world on my own terms,” said Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, the Van Nuys Democrat who is co-authoring a bill based on Oregon’s voter-approved law.
“As Californians approach the twilight of their lives,” he said, “they deserve to have control over their health care.”
Assemblywoman Patty Berg, a Eureka Democrat and co-author
of the bill whose district extends south to the Bay Area, said that “there have to be alternatives to the way some people spend their final days.”
Steve Mason, the 64-year-old poet laureate of the Vietnam Veterans of America, was among a string of bill supporters that included representatives of some hospice and senior groups to speak during a four-hour informational hearing.
Mason, an Oregon resident, told lawmakers he is suffering from terminal lung cancer and has begun the process of using that state’s Death with Dignity Act of 1997. Nearly 200 terminally ill patients have chosen physician-assisted death in Oregon since the law went into effect.
Members of the California Assembly Aging and Long-term Care and Judiciary committees, meeting jointly, also heard from a parade of opponents, which include the Catholic Church and the California Medical Association
insidebayarea.com/review/ci_2555755
Their planned legislation, first brought to public light by The Daily Review last November, would make California only the second state in the nation to legalize physician-aided death.
“If I become terminally ill and doctors are unable to save me, I want the freedom to leave this world on my own terms,” said Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, the Van Nuys Democrat who is co-authoring a bill based on Oregon’s voter-approved law.
“As Californians approach the twilight of their lives,” he said, “they deserve to have control over their health care.”
Assemblywoman Patty Berg, a Eureka Democrat and co-author
of the bill whose district extends south to the Bay Area, said that “there have to be alternatives to the way some people spend their final days.”
Steve Mason, the 64-year-old poet laureate of the Vietnam Veterans of America, was among a string of bill supporters that included representatives of some hospice and senior groups to speak during a four-hour informational hearing.
Mason, an Oregon resident, told lawmakers he is suffering from terminal lung cancer and has begun the process of using that state’s Death with Dignity Act of 1997. Nearly 200 terminally ill patients have chosen physician-assisted death in Oregon since the law went into effect.
Members of the California Assembly Aging and Long-term Care and Judiciary committees, meeting jointly, also heard from a parade of opponents, which include the Catholic Church and the California Medical Association
insidebayarea.com/review/ci_2555755
