Right-to-die advocates got a boost on Wednesday when a bill in California was introduced allowing doctors to aid terminally ill adults in ending their lives.
The “California End of Life Option” Law, is modeled after Oregon’s 1994 “Death with Dignity Act” which allows medical assisted suicide. Several states, including Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, and Missouri are also debating such measures. The Oregon suicide law has already been introduced in Washington D.C. and was passed by New Jersey lawmakers in November.
Montana and New Mexico courts have also ruled that physicians may prescribe lethal drugs to the competent terminally ill.
Former Oregon state legislator and Vice President of the Death with Dignity National Center in Portland George Eighmey, who advised on the California bill, has a plan.
“We have a goal of 10 in 10. In the next 10 years, we’re anticipating having 10 more states. It’s sort of like the other social movements that are out there — the gay rights movement, the legalizing marijuana movement. All those things get to a critical mass and once they get to that critical mass, you start seeing other states get on board very quickly.”
Sounds like a great plan, which many say would have never seen daylight before Maynard’s case was highly publicized.
Religious groups considered assisted suicide “against God’s will.”
Opponents had expressed concern that prescribing fatal medication would put pressure on patients to end their lives.
Many said that Maynard was the face of a new ad campaign to promote the movement.
“It’s an organized campaign funded by Soros money, and they’re using the Maynard case as their launching pad,” said Wesley J. Smith, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a euthanasia opponent.
“Let’s think about this for a second: There have been over 700 assisted suicides in Oregon, and not one of them got this kind of attention. What you have is a movement that looks around for just the right kind of emotional kick,” Mr. Smith said. “You don’t get this kind of international, high-profile media by accident.”
Brittany Maynard was 29-years-old who suffered from terminal brain cancer when she moved with her family from San Francisco Bay Area to Oregon, to exercise her right to die under that state’s Death with Dignity Act.
Maynard, who ended her life with the help of a doctor on Nov. 1 in Portland, had publicly argued that she should have the right to die in her hometown in California.
“I don’t want to die,” she said in an interview with CBS News a few weeks before she ended her life in November. “If anyone wants to hand me, like, a magical cure and save my life so that I can have children with my husband, you know, I will take them up on it.”
She had insisted that having the right to end the suffering of terminally ill people is not the same as committing suicide
"No, cancer is ending my life," she said. "I am choosing to end it a little sooner and in a lot less pain and suffering."
Maynard’s story has definitely played a role in boosting Oregon’s 1994 assisted suicide act. Her husband Dan Diaz and mother Debbie Ziegler were both present and gave speeches at a Sacramento conference, alongside picture of a People magazine cover showing Brittany and Dan before her death, displayed near the podium at the state capitol.
“Having aid in dying as an end-of-life option provided great relief to Brittany,” Mr. Diaz said in a statement.
“It enabled my wife to focus on living her last days to the fullest, rather than having to worry about dying in agony from terminal brain cancer. I promised Brittany I would do everything in my power to fulfill her mission to make this end-of-life option available to all Californians.”
