California joined four other states that allow physician-assisted suicide after Governor Jerry Brown, D-CA, signed the End of Life Option Act into law. The measure allows physicians to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients diagnosed with fewer than six months to live. Limitations apply, as described below. The bill will take effect 90 days after the California legislature ends it session on healthcare. Predictions are that this will happen between January and November 2016. Without further legislative action, the Act will automatically repeal on January 1, 2026.
Governor Brown, a cancer survivor explained his thinking around the decision. “In the end, I was left to reflect on what I would want in the face of my own death. I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain. I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill.”
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