On Thursday, California becomes the fifth state in the U.S. to allow terminally ill patients to legally end their own lives with doctor-prescribed medication.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed the “End of Life Option Act” into law despite staunch opposition from different groups, but with voters and patients suffering terminal disease saying that law is a source of a sense of peace.
“There is general discomfort of just cancer, and that is your body has just been ravaged,” 46-year-old Matt Fairchild, a stage 4 melanoma patient who takes hundreds of pills a day to stay alive despite almost-constant pain, said.
'Killing Is Not Caring'
In a statement issued Wednesday, however, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez said that the move will kill “those whose suffering we can no longer tolerate,” emphasizing that killing is not equivalent to caring.
According to the law taking effect on June 9, patients must be at least age 18 and have less than 6 months to live in order to be allowed life-ending drug prescription from a doctor. Once the prescription is filled, the patient must complete a form within 48 hours before self-administering the drug.
The drug costs $4,000 and is not covered by most insurance plans.
Similar laws are already in place in Oregon, Washington, and Vermont. In 2009, the Supreme Court of Montana started to shield doctors from prosecution in acts of physician-assisted suicide through its expanded Rights of the Terminally Ill Act. There were several attempts to pass euthanasia-related bills since the ruling was made, but none has been passed.
California’s end-of-life law was partly inspired by the view of the 29-year-old Brittany Maynard. In 2009, Maynard was a California resident who refused to be pinned down by a terminal brain tumor, and decided to move to Oregon to access the state’s right-to-die legislation, the first in the country.
Blurred Distinction In Health Care?
However, as the new law goes into effect, some California doctors are wondering where to draw the line.
“Suddenly, that bright line is not so bright,” said Dr. Neil Wenger, an internal medicine expert who believes that doctor-assisted dying blurs what used to be a clear distinction for health care providers.
He also said that the Hippocratic Oath commands doctors to avoid harming patients as well as to not provide poison to kill someone.
While in charge of implementing the new law at UCLA, Wenger said he is unlikely to practice it — and that it is against his oath. He is “pretty nervous” and uncertain as to how many patients will actually make the request, he added.
Providence Health as well as other church-affiliated hospitals have altogether decided to opt out, pointing out that intentionally ending a life is not aligned with medicine and nursing’s core principles.
In a 2015 poll by UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies showed that over 75 percent of Californians favored the law.
The California governor, a former Jesuit seminary student, signed the assisted-death bill into law last year.
He was said to have consulted a Catholic bishop and other religious leaders, advocates for the disabled, his own doctors, and even Archbishop Desmond Tutu in deciding whether to okay the bill, which will prevail for 10 years starting 2016.
Photo: Andrew Malone | Flickr
