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The California Compassionate Choices Act: Controversy is in the Eye of the Beholder

Berg-May-22,-2007.gif

By Patty Berg
Assemblywoman, 1st District

Just because someone doesn’t like something doesn’t make it controversial.

Sushi is not controversial food. Some people just don’t like it.

The same is true of AB 374, our bill that would give terminally ill Californians the right to use medication to control their own dying.

Some people don’t like it.

But 70 percent of California voters do like it. So where’s the controversy? Is it controversial just because the people who don’t like it make a lot of noise about it?

Anything that has support of 70 percent of the voters is not controversial. In the public mind, the issue is settled, and now the government just needs to catch up.

In Oregon – the only state that respects the full rights of dying people – they adopted the Death With Dignity Act through the initiative process. And some people say that’s how we should do it here. Even the governor has said that might be the way to go.

But the legislative process, I believe, is better. Because of this process, we have a bill that has more safeguards than in Oregon. And now we’re adding even more amendments, even more safeguards, to make it better still. You can’t do that with the initiative process.

And we continue to perfect this measure. We have just announced an amendment to provided additional protection for low-income people; an amendment to make sure that no one can have this medication until they have less than three months to live; and an amendment that makes sure this medication is disposed of properly because a lot of people get this prescription filled to give them comfort, but never end up using it.

So, that’s where we are. We’re going to have an even better end-of-life law than they have in Oregon.

And, one last thing: People often ask why I’m so passionate about getting this bill passed.

In a nutshell, it’s this:

Current law lets your doctor and your heirs can decide when your time is up. If you are sick enough, they can withhold nutrition and give you powerful drugs to keep you unconscious until you die.

It’s perfectly legal. No one has to ask your permission. And, amazingly, no one ever refers to it as a controversial practice.

AB 374, on the other hand, says that you can make that call for yourself. There is no reason in the world that you should not be able to make a decision for yourself that your heirs and your doctors can already make for you.

The only difference between existing law and AB 374 is that AB 374 lets you make your own choice.

That’s why the Speaker of this Assembly, the ACLU, MALDEF, AFSCME, the National Organization of Women and every major senior citizen group in the state want to change the law.

(AB 374 is jointly authored by Patty Berg, Lloyd Levine and Speaker Fabian Núñez.)

For more information, please visit the California Compassionate Choices Act website.

Posted on May 23, 2007

Comments

Polls may or may not indicate support for legalization of assisted suicide. (Some do, but others don't.) In any case, that's irrelevant. Public policy making should be more than a popularity contest. Otherwise, we wouldn't need a Legislature.

There are some serious problems with AB 374, and the new window dressing added by the latest amendments doesn't change the fact that there are *no* provisions for effective enforcement of the bill's so-called "safeguards": No oversight. No monitoring. No authority to investigate suspicious cases. No penalties for violating the rules. And no funding to change any of that.

Assembly Member Berg says:

"Current law lets your doctor and your heirs can (sic) decide when your time is up. If you are sick enough, they can withhold nutrition and give you powerful drugs to keep you unconscious until you die."

But current law also let's you make such decisions for yourself. Patients already are legally entitled to refuse unwanted medical treatment, and the Pain Patients Bill of Rights, along with the Intractable Pain Management Act, permit patients to get powerful pain management drugs even if the result may be death. We don't need another law to accomplish this. It's already on the books.

Well-intended as it may be, AB 374 unnecessarily opens a Pandora's Box of dangerous unintended consequences.

Posted by: Laura Remson Mitchell at May 23, 2007 03:35 PM

I watched my brother and my mother die of painful terrible cancers. My brother begged us to kill him.
He would have been able to make his own decision rather than die an undignifed, inhumane, horribly painful death. That memory is burned into my memory forever. They should have had that right before it got to that. We all should. We have a right to die if that is what we choose. No one should have to beg to die. People who are against this have never watched the suffering death of a loved one.

Posted by: Morris1 at May 23, 2007 03:53 PM

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