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Assembly shelves assisted suicide legislation
June 7, 2007
Early reports indicate that AB374 has been shelved:
Assembly shelves assisted suicide legislation
By Jim Sanders - Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 10:56 am PDT Thursday, June 7, 2007Hotly contested legislation to allow doctors to prescribe fatal medication to terminally ill patients was shelved Thursday in the Assembly. Assembly Bill 374 lacked enough votes for passage and time was running out, with the Assembly facing a Friday deadline for acting upon bills by its members. “The people are there and the politicians aren’t,” said Will Shuck, chief of staff for Assemblywoman Patty Berg, a Eureka Democrat who helped write the bill. AB 374 is dead for the year. It could be resurrected in January, Shuck said, but he is not sure whether that will happen. A similar measure, one of the Legislature’s most hotly contested, died in a Senate committee last year. This year’s bill received a boost when Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez signed on as a joint author. But opposition remained intense. AB 374 was patterned after a similar law in Oregon. The California measure would have allowed terminally ill patients with less than three months to live to request and ingest fatal medication after diagnoses by two doctors and compliance with various other conditions. Supporters described the proposal as creating a “compassionate choice” for terminally ill patients. Opponents blasted it as a devaluation of life and a form of suicide.
Topics: Respect Life |
June 10th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Good actions and prayers are powerful!
Prayers for all our relations.
Take Care and keep in touch,
Sylvia Mendivil Salazar