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 The law, based on a similar measure in Oregon, allows doctors to
prescribe medication to end a patient's life if two doctors agree
the person has only six months to live and is mentally competent.
In a rare statement accompanying the signing notice, Brown, a former
Roman Catholic seminarian, said he closely considered arguments on
both sides of the controversial measure, which makes California only
the fifth U.S. state to legalize assisted suicide for terminally ill
patients.
"I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and
excruciating pain," Brown said. "I am certain, however, that it
would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by
this bill. And I wouldn't deny that right to others."
The law, which goes into effect Jan. 1., makes it a felony to
pressure anyone into requesting or taking assisted suicide drugs.
Advocates for physician-assisted suicide have tried for decades to
persuade California to legalize the practice as a way to help
end-stage cancer and other patients to die with less pain and
suffering, failing six times in the legislature or the ballot box
before finally winning passage last month.
The latest bill was introduced amid nationwide publicity over the
case of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old brain cancer patient who
moved from California to Oregon to take advantage of that state's
assisted suicide law and died there.
"My wife, Brittany Maynard, spoke up last year to make a difference
for terminally ill individuals who are facing a potentially harsh
dying process,” said Maynard’s widower, Dan Diaz, who lobbied
passionately for the bill when it was before the legislature.
The California bill was strongly opposed by some religious groups,
including the Roman Catholic Church, as well as advocates for people
with disabilities, who said unscrupulous caregivers or relatives
could pressure vulnerable patients to take their own lives.
LAW'S PROTECTIONS QUESTIONED
Opponents also said the bill would invite insurance companies to
take advantage of poor patients by offering to pay for the cost of
life-ending drugs but not for the expensive treatments that could
save lives.
"There is a deadly mix when you combine our broken healthcare system
with assisted suicide, which immediately becomes the cheapest
treatment," said Marilyn Golden, a senior policy analyst at the
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund in Berkeley. "The
so-called protections written into the bill really amount to very
little."
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But supporters said the measure would allow people who are
terminally ill to die with dignity and greater comfort.
"My daughter did not die in vain," said Dr. Robert Olvera, an
advocate for the measure whose daughter succumbed to leukemia in
2014. "This is the option she wanted to end her suffering."
As presently written, the law will expire after 10 years unless
extended, a compromise with lawmakers who were worried about
unintended consequences such as the targeting of the poor, elderly
and disabled.
Physician-assisted suicide is already legal in the states of Oregon,
Washington, Montana and Vermont.
On Monday, the advocacy group Compassion and Choices, which backed
and lobbied for the measure, called on other states to follow
California's lead.
Opponents were quick to react, saying that passage in other states
was far from inevitable.
Tim Rosales, a spokesman for Californians Against Assisted Suicide,
said his coalition had not yet decided whether it would sue to stop
the new law from going into effect.
But he downplayed the likelihood that advocates would be able to
quickly mount campaigns in other states, saying it would be
difficult for them to raise enough money to go state by state and
fight for such a controversial proposal.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb
in Los Angeles; Editing by Eric Beech)
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