Low Number Of Patients Utilizing Aid-In-Dying Law May Signal Issues With Access To Doctors
“It means that there are so many people who cannot get a doctor to work with them,” said Dr. Lonny Shavelson, a Berkeley-based primary care doctor.
The Mercury News:
Over 100 Californians Ended Their Lives Under State’s Right-To-Die Law
One hundred and eleven. That’s the number of California residents who died with the help of doctor-prescribed drugs under the state’s new aid-in-dying law, according to a first-of-its-kind report released Tuesday. Nearly 200 received the drugs under the law, the report said. The law allowing assisted suicide in the Golden State, called the End of Life Option Act, went into effect on June 9, 2016, ending years of passionate debate over whether the state should allow any mentally competent California adult, diagnosed with less than six months to live, to end their life with a lethal drug prescription from their doctor. (May and Seipel, 6/28)