Aid-In-Dying Law: Terminally-Ill Patients Dismayed To Find Dearth Of Doctors Willing To Help
Many are outraged that the law has not changed their options, because doctors willing to participate are scarce. “The law, to me, means you still need to go to Oregon," says Catherine Dale, whose mother was left scrambling to find a doctor when she decided to use the aid-in-dying law.
Mercury News:
Terminally Ill Californians Struggling To Find Doctors To Help With Aid In Dying
For 78-year-old Judy Dale, this wasn’t the way California’s new aid-in-dying law was supposed to work. The San Francisco grandmother, her body riddled with cancer, had hoped to die on her own terms when the time came by ingesting lethal medications prescribed by a physician. But the panic-filled weeks she spent this summer trying to find a doctor — any doctor — willing to participate in the state’s End of Life Option Act were running out. By the time she located one, it was too late, and when Dale drew her final breath Tuesday morning, it was not the kind of death she — or her family — had envisioned. (Seipel, 9/17)