On July 7, 2015, members of the California Assembly Health Committee pulled the bill after lack of support due to serious concerns about the bill.
Physician Assisted suicide legislation has been introduced in 24 states, To date, none of these bills have passed. A NJ bill (A2270/S382) passed the full Assembly in November of 2014 and was released from the Senate Health Committee on December 15, 2014 without recommendation. It is still pending a full vote in the NJ Senate.Since January, 2015, physician assisted suicide legislation was defeated in Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, Colorado, Wyoming, Maine Utah, Rhode Island and Nevada.
Please continue to call, email and meet with your State Senator to urge him/her to Vote No on A2270/S382. Please also call the Governor 609 292 6000 and urge him to veto this bill if it reaches his desk. Thank you.
California assisted death bill finished for the year
Senate Bill 128 stalls in Assembly Health Committee
California’s controversial assisted death bill is done for the year, according to the Assembly Health Committee.
In an e-mail to legislative offices, committee secretary Patty Rodgers wrote, “The authors will not pursue this bill this year – waiting on a statement from the authors explaining details and future plans.”
Senate Bill 128 would have allowed doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients. It passed the Senate last month, but stalled in the Assembly Health Committee two weeks ago over increasing objections from Latino Democrats.
Past attempts to legalize assisted death in California also collapsed, but SB 128’s champions believed that public sentiment had turned in their favor. They also surmounted a major political obstacle when the California Medical Association silenced its longstanding aversion to helping ailing patients die.
But the Catholic Church remained firmly opposed to the bill, arguing that it was an ethical violation. Proponents were not able to sway a majority of members on the Assembly Health Committee, some of whom pointed to personal experiences that counseled them against backing the bill.
“You’ve got to look at what I’ve done before the Legislature … working to help save and protect peoples’ lives, giving that option – a second chance at life,” Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, D-Pomona, who worked as an emergency medical technician, said Monday. “Letting folks have that option to end their life, it’s just something I can’t come to grips with.”
Some members denied that religious objections were a decisive factor.
“There are times when I can be in clear policy opposition to the church – clearly with a pro-choice stand as a Democrat, I can say ‘no’ to the church,” Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, a practicing Catholic who once weighed entering the seminary, said on Monday. “It’s more of an internal struggle of how to look at the end of life more than any impact of religious or political” pressure.
Alexei Koseff: 916-321-5236, @akoseff. Jeremy B. White of The Bee Capitol Bureau contributed to this report.