Stigma About Being ‘Go-To’ Doctor For Aid-In-Dying Prescriptions May Be Impeding Law
Media outlets offer a look at how California's aid-in-dying law is faring a year in.
KQED:
Physician-Assisted Suicide Has Been Legal In California For A Year. How’s It Going?
California’s End of Life Option Act went into effect on June 9, 2016. The law created a process for dying patients to ask their doctors for a lethal prescription that the patients can then ingest privately, at home. Since then, at least 500 Californians have received life-ending prescriptions, according to newly released data collected by Compassion and Choices, an advocacy group that promotes aid-in-dying laws nationwide. (O'Neill, 6/7)
Orange County Register:
A Year After It Passed, California’s Right-To-Die Law Still Faces Challenges
According to the national nonprofit Compassion & Choices, since June 9, 2016, at least 504 terminally ill adults in California have received prescriptions for the lethal drugs. But the group does not know how many of them actually ingested the drugs, which range from Seconal, a sedative that costs around $3,500 per prescribed dose, to a combination of a sedative and a drug that stops the heart, for about $600. (Bharath, 6/7)
