Politics

‘Right To Die’ Bill Proposed In California

Robert Pursell Contributor
Font Size:

Two California state senators have introduced a new bill to give terminally ill Californians greater ability to choose how, and when, they die.

The bill comes after the public quest of Bay Area resident Brittany Maynard to end her battle with terminal cancer through a physician assisted death. Maynard, 29, died on Nov. 1, 2014.

Bill co-authors Bill Monning and Lois Wolk, both Democrats, will be joined by the late Maynard’s mother and husband Wednesday in Sacramento where they will unveil the End of Life Option Act. The bill will allow doctors in California to prescribe a lethal dose of medicine to terminally ill patients, which the patient will in turn be able to take on their own accord.

“Our hope is to see the end-of-life option as part of a continuum of established rights available to patients,” Monning told the San Jose Mercury News. He cited his wife’s expertise as a physician and the experience of watching close friends suffer through their final days as reasons for introducing the bill.

The push for the legalization of physician-assisted death in California has gained considerable traction after Maynard’s story went viral.

Under current California law, Maynard was blocked from receiving physician prescribed medicines to end her life and battle with an aggressive form of terminal brain cancer. After publicly campaigning for it, Maynard moved from her house in East Bay to Portland, Ore. as a way of taking advantage of the state’s Death with Dignity law.

In Oregon, physician-assisted death is legal, and following a worsening of her symptoms, Brittany chose to end her life this past November, after a day spent hiking in the woods with her family and friends. She took a fatal dosage of medicine and died peacefully in her sleep, surrounded by her loved ones.

Still, despite the viral nature of Brittany’s campaign, opponents of right to die laws in California remain adamant in their opposition of the new bill, and any measure that would allow for physician-assisted death.

“We will advocate quite aggressively against this legislation. … Once suicide becomes an option, it is just another form of treatment and the cheapest option,” Tim Rosales, a spokesman for Californians Against Assisted Suicide, told the Mercury News. The California Medical Association has already condemned such legislation in the past, saying it would pose a direct conflict to a doctor’s ethical duties.

Currently, laws allowing physician-assisted deaths exist in Washington, Oregon and Vermont. The practice has been allowed via court rulings in Montana and New Mexico. Legislation on the practice is set to be introduced in as many as 12 other states according to the group Compassion and Choices, which is campaigning publicly for the cause.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel