Bright Line Between Doctors And Death Blurring As Aid-In-Dying Law Date Nears
As providers grapple with the voluntary option of providing a patient drugs to end his or her life, experts predict that it will be a marginalized practice within the health care system, with few patients asking for lethal medications and few doctors furnishing them. The End of Life Option Act goes into effect Thursday, making California the fifth state in the nation to offer such an option.
The Los Angeles Times:
California Physicians Are Skeptical As Aid-In-Dying Law Goes Into Effect
As a new law goes into effect in California allowing terminally ill patients to take medicines to kill themselves, physicians are contemplating whether they would ever write a prescription for death. (Karlamangla, 6/6)
The Los Angeles Daily News:
Cancer Patient Looks To California’s New Aid-In-Dying Law To End Suffering
As an outspoken supporter of California’s new aid-in-dying law, which takes effect in a few days, [Matt] Fairchild knows people are curious about him. They want to know more about a man who wants the right to choose the day of his death. (Abram, 6/5)
The Modesto Bee:
Starting Thursday, Stanislaus County Patients Will Have Right-To-Die Option
California’s right-to-die law goes into effect Thursday, giving terminally ill patients the option of ending their lives with a lethal drug prescribed by their doctor. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill last October that was inspired by the story of 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, who moved to Oregon to end her life under that state’s Death with Dignity Act. Maynard, who had an aggressive brain tumor, thought it was unjust to have to leave the state rather than have a painless death at home. (Carlson, 6/4)
The San Francisco Chronicle:
California Beginning Era With New Options To End Life
Inside her Placerville home in a meticulously decorated bedroom with views of pine trees and the Sierra Nevada, Kristy Allan hopes to die. In her sleep preferably, the 63-year-old says. (Gutierrez, 6/4)
The Press Democrat:
New Assisted-Suicide Law Lets Doctors Help Dying Californians End Their Lives
The controversial legislation is modeled on Oregon’s 1997 Death with Dignity law, which resulted in more than 130 doctor-assisted suicides in that state last year. After much debate in Sacramento, it gained political traction last fall after Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old brain cancer victim from California, traveled to Portland in 2014 so she could receive lethal drugs prescribed by a doctor. (Payne 6/4)
California Healthline:
A New Sort Of Consultant: Advising Doctors And Patients on California’s Aid-In-Dying Law
Few people have the unusual set of professional experiences that Dr. Lonny Shavelson does. He worked as an emergency room physician in Berkeley for years — while also working as a journalist. He has written several books and takes hauntingly beautiful photographs. Now, just as California’s law aid-in-dying law takes effect this week, Shavelson has added another specialty: A consultant to physicians and terminally ill patients who have questions about how it works. “Can I just sit back and watch?” Shavelson asked from his cottage office. “This is really an amazing opportunity to be part of establishing policy and initiating something in medicine. This is a major change … [that] very, very few people know anything about and how to do it.” (Aliferis, 6/6)