Court Reinstates Doctor-Assisted Suicide in California

Last month Judge Daniel Ottolia of Riverside County Superior Court declared a state law allowing terminally ill patients will months or less to live to receive prescriptions to end their lives unconstitutional, but not on its merits. The judge ruled that it had been improperly passed during a special session of the legislature. The state appeals court overturned that ruling and reinstated the law by an immediate state, but gave opponents until July 2, 2018 to file objections.

The Life Legal Defense Foundation, American Academy of Medical Ethics and several physicians were among those who sued to have the law overturned, claiming that the law violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the United States and California constitutions. Proponents of the End of Life Option, law such as Kevin Díaz, national director of legal advocacy for Compassion & Choices, seeing the ruling of the Fourth District Court of Appeals in Riverside sees the stay as ” [A] huge win for many terminally ill Californians with six months or less to live because it could take years for the courts to resolve this case.”

The first state to allow physician-assisted suicide in America was Oregon in 1997. California’s law went into effect on June 9, 2016. Vermont, Washington, Colorado, Washington D.C., and Hawaii all provide end of life option laws for terminally ill patients.

See Court Reinstates Doctor-Assisted Suicide in California, KVOA.com, June 16, 2018.