Democratic Split Could Torpedo Passage Of Calif. ‘Right To Die’ Bill
As the legislation heads toward a crucial vote in an Assembly committee Tuesday, analysts say it looks unlikely that California will become the latest state to legalize physician-assisted suicide this year. Some point to a split among Democrats from more affluent, white districts and those from Latino districts.
The Associated Press:
California Right-To-Die Bill Struggling Ahead Of Key Vote
A bill that would allow California physicians to help terminally ill patients end their lives is struggling to muster enough support ahead of a legislative vote Tuesday. Aid-in-dying advocates had hoped the nationally publicized case of Brittany Maynard, the 29-year-old California woman with brain cancer who moved to Oregon to legally end her life last fall, would prompt a wave of new state laws allowing doctors to prescribe life-ending medications. No state has passed right-to-die legislation this year, however, and efforts have been defeated or stalled in Colorado, Maine, New Jersey and elsewhere. (Nirappil, 7/7)
NPR:
'No One Should Have The Right To Prolong My Death'
When Jennifer Glass goes to Sacramento Tuesday to deliver testimony in favor of the California End-of-Life-Options Act, the trip will require some complex logistics. ... Glass's testimony in support of the right to die is an intensely personal one. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013, and last month she learned it had become resistant to the oral Tarceva she was taking; the cancer is now in both lungs and in her liver, abdomen, pelvis, cervix and brain. ... The bill, the most recent in a long line of such bills that have been introduced in California since 1995, passed the state Senate in early June by a vote of 23 to 14. The Assembly's health committee is scheduled to vote on it Tuesday. (Marantz Henig, 7/7)
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
'Aid In Dying' Causes A Democratic Split
As “death with dignity” legislation heads toward a crucial vote in an Assembly committee on Tuesday, it seems increasingly unlikely that California will become the fourth state to legalize physician-assisted suicide — at least not this year. The reason: A split between the Democratic Party’s white legislators from affluent, liberal coastal districts and its Latino members, who tend to represent working class areas and cities in the state’s agricultural heartland. Called the “End of Life Option Act,” SB 128 would let terminally ill patients request a drug that would hasten their death. Introduced by Democratic Sens. Bill Monning of Carmel and Lois Wolk of Davis, the legislation got a boost last month when the California Medical Association — long opposed to turning doctors into suicide-providers — moved to a neutral stance. (Greenhut, 7/6)
Other stories look at how doctors choose to die and the emerging conversation about death and dying -
Kaiser Health News:
‘A Terrible Way To End Someone’s Life’
Dr. Kendra Fleagle Gorlitsky recalls the anguish she used to feel performing CPR on elderly, terminally ill patients. 'I felt like I was beating up people up at the end of their life,' she says. ... Gorlitsky wants something different for herself and for her loved ones. And most other doctors do too: A Stanford University study shows almost 90 percent of doctors would forego resuscitation and aggressive treatment if facing a terminal illness. It was about 10 years ago, after a colleague had died swiftly and peacefully, that Dr. Ken Murray first noticed doctors die differently than the rest of us. (O'Neill, 7/6)
The Kansas Health Institute News Service:
Death And Dying: An Emerging Conversation
In the United States, which ranks 53rd globally, a person on average can expect to survive 78 years and several months, mostly thanks to vaccines, improved sanitation, antibiotics and other health advances. People over 90 now are the fastest-growing part of the U.S. population, and there is a new category — “supercentenarians” — open to anyone who makes it past 110. “Longevity is good in general. In the specifics, it becomes a very different picture,” said John Carney, head of the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City, Mo., a nonprofit group that among other things is attempting to catalyze productive discussions — at the individual and societal levels — about how to deal with the ethical, emotional and medical issues that complicate the final months, weeks and days of our lives. (Shields, 7/6)
