After the powerful California Medical Association removed its opposition to the latest bill last spring, backers hoped it would pass.
California assisted suicide bill to be heard in special session
A controversial bill to allow physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients in California comes up for a new round of hearings on Tuesday, after failing in the legislature earlier this summer amid opposition from the Catholic Church.
The
measure, which was pulled from consideration in the legislature's
regular session in July, was reintroduced last month as part of a
special session on healthcare called by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.
"The more time we've had to work on it, the more support we have," said Senator Bill Monning, a Democrat from Carmel who is a co-author of the bill. "Every major newspaper in the state has editorialized in support."
Last
weekend, conservative columnist George Will wrote a column supporting
assisted suicide, breaking with many conservatives to do so.
Backers have tried numerous times to legalize aid-in-dying in California, without success.
Last
year, the issue burst into public consciousness in California after a
29-year-old cancer patient, Brittany Maynard, moved to Oregon to take
advantage of that state's assisted suicide law.
With
polls showing consistent support for such a measure in the most
populous U.S. state, Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill after
Maynard's death to make it legal for a doctor to prescribe medication
for a terminally ill patient to end his or her life.
The
practice is opposed by many doctors, who feel they should preserve life
rather than help to end it, the Catholic Church and many conservative
religious groups. Disability rights activists fear disabled people will
be pushed to end their lives by insurance companies or relatives who do
not want to care for them.
Assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont.
After
the powerful California Medical Association removed its opposition to
the latest bill last spring, backers hoped it would pass.
The
measure made it through the state Senate, a more liberal body where it
has strong support. But it stalled in the health committee of the state
Assembly amid concern from some lawmakers with large Catholic
constituencies that the Church was strongly opposed to it.
The
committee, however, has different members for the special session on
healthcare, so backers are optimistic that this time it will pass.
The
California bill makes it a felony to pressure someone into
physician-assisted suicide. It also forbids insurance companies from
sending patients information about aid-in-dying drugs unless the patient
has requested it
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