SACRAMENTO >> Legislation that would allow terminally ill Californians to end their lives with help from a doctor is heading to Gov. Jerry Brown after the state Senate on Friday voted 23 to 14 to pass the bill.
“Californians by an overwhelming majority — across all groups, religious, ethnic, geographic, no matter what age or gender — Californians want us, the Legislature, to act to eliminate the needless pain and prolonged suffering of those who are dying,” Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, told her Senate colleagues Friday.
Wolk and Sen. Bill Monning, D-Monterey, had introduced an earlier version of the bill this year that stalled when it got to the Assembly Health Committee this summer. Several committee members, mostly Southern California Democrats, had expressed growing personal and religious concerns, especially after being lobbied hard by the Roman Catholic Church to oppose the measure.
At that point, one of the most controversial and emotional pieces of legislation this year was assumed to be dead. Then, last month, Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton, resurrected the issue when she introduced Assembly Bill X2-15, as part of Brown’s special session on health care funding for the poor.
Following almost two hours of emotional testimony Wednesday, the bill passed the Assembly by a vote of 43 to 34. Then the Senate took it up Friday.
“It’s a sense of accomplishment and happiness and pride in the legislators who voted for this. They are representing the will of California people,” Dan Diaz, the widower of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old UC Berkeley graduate and newlywed diagnosed with aggressive terminal brain cancer who moved to Portland, Oregon, to receive physician-prescribed medication to end her life last year.
Diaz, a 43-year-old Alamo resident, had attended the Friday session to witness the historic vote.
Brown has not indicated if he will sign the bill into law. Recent comments by a Brown spokeswoman suggested that the governor did not like the legislative maneuvering to push the bill forward as part of the special legislative session.
Diaz said Friday he was grateful Brown “took the time to have a conversation” by phone with his wife three days before she died.
The measure would allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to mentally competent, terminally ill patients.
Doctors can prescribe life-ending drugs in Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont. And more than 20 states saw similar legislation introduced this year.
Disability rights advocates and oncologists have opposed the legislation, saying it takes advantage of the poor and vulnerable.
“This is a profoundly personal and highly sensitive issue that touched every Californian,” said Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon. “I’m very proud that this bill received a clear-eyed, open-hearted debate at every step of the legislative process. It is now a carefully crafted measure that safeguards against abuses.”
