A leukemia patient has filed a lawsuit in a San Francisco court against the state of California in a battle for right to doctor-assisted, or physician-assisted suicide.
The law in California finds it illegal for physicians to help terminally ill patients to die. Christine White, a 53-year-old Californian woman, who has been battling leukemia for about seven years (which is in remission), has a filed the lawsuit along with five doctors that calls for California law to be changed regarding physician-assisted suicide.
The lawsuit seeks clarification of current state law, which makes it illegal to advise, encourage or aid someone to commit suicide. The lawsuit says that the law should not apply to doctors or mentally competent patients.
The lawsuit that has been filed in the San Francisco Superior Court also alleges that physician-assisted suicide is not a crime as physicians offer such services do not help a patient to commit suicide, but they help a patient die peacefully.
"I am suing the State of California to remove the legal barrier between my doctor and myself to help me achieve a peaceful and dignified death, at the time and place of my choosing," says White in a Statement.
White suggests that if her leukemia returns she will want to seek physician-assisted suicide. She reveals that she does not want to die in a hospital.
"I've seen too many of my friends in the cancer patients' community die that way," says White.
However, opponents suggest that physicians who prescribe ending of life are actually violating their oath of doing no harm to patients. Some opponents fear that several seriously ill patients may also feel pressurized to end their own life due to many personal circumstances such as due to treatment costs that insurers refuse to pay.
Physician-assisted suicide is a crime in California but is allowed in some other states. A few months back Brittany Maynard, a terminally ill woman suffering from brain cancer, moved to Oregon from San Francisco to benefit from the state's Death With Dignity Act. The act allows terminally ill people in the state to opt for ending their life with help from their physician.
White claims that a patient should not have to move out of California and away from their family in case they want to avail physician-assisted suicide.
