(from Death with Dignity National Center): In California, where a bill is inching closer to the Senate floor, two major developments nudged the proposed End of Life Option Act closer to passage.
First, the California Medical Association has removed its opposition to physician-assisted dying and is now neutral on SB 128, End of Life Option Act, which our experts helped craft and shepherd through an amendment process and Committee hearings (read the CMA’s full press release). With this move, the CMA became the first state medical association in the U.S. to change its position on the issue, which helps pave the way to a success on the Senate floor.
The importance of this development cannot be understated. The CMA had opposed Death with Dignity for 28 years until it recognized that, “it is up to the individual physician and their patient to decide voluntarily whether the End of Life Option Act is something in which they want to engage.”
We applaud the CMA for its change of heart, and our appreciation goes to the bill’s sponsors, Senators Bill Monning and Lois Wolk for their tireless efforts.
And just yesterday, the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board asked the Senate to let the End of Life Option Act move forward.
“The Senate needs to move this bill along; the right to make one’s own, final medical decisions should be obvious by now,” opines the Los Angeles Times in its editorial.
The bill is expected to move out of the Appropriations Committee at the end of the month, and a debate to take place in the full Senate in early June.