End of Life Options and Death with Dignity

  Update: On Oct. 5 Governor Jerry Brown signed the "End of Life Option Act" into law, making California the fifth state to allow physicians to voluntarily provide lethal prescriptions to patients who are terminally ill and satisfy certain criteria.

Governor Brown, a life-long Catholic, said he discussed the matter with a Catholic Bishop before deciding whether to approve AB2X15. In the end he wrote, "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. And I wouldn't deny that right to others."

Update - 09/11/15: The Senate passed the End of Life Option Act (ABX2-15), after a 23 to 14 vote.

Update - 09/09/15: The California Assembly passed a medical aid-in-dying bill - The End of Life Option Act - after a 43-34 vote. It now moves forward to the Senate, which has until Sep. 11 to pass the bill. A similar version of the bill was passed in June. According to Compassion & Choices, three states currently recognize medical aid-in-dying: Washington, Montana, and Vermont.

Update: SB 128, the End of Life Option Act, was shelved in the Assembly Health Committee July 7, 2015. In recent months, the California Medical Association dropped its opposition to the bill.

Should terminally ill Californians have the option to end their own lives as patients in Oregon and Washington do? Anchor Val Zavala talks with a doctor who lost his 25-year-old daughter to cancer after a long and painful death. He would've liked to have given his daughter the choice of a lethal prescription that Brittany Maynard had when she went to Oregon to lawfully end her life. Opponents say allowing "assisted suicide" is a violation of physicians' oath: that pain at the end of the life can be managed with proper palliative care, and financial incentives could lead to the abuse. How would the law work? What would be the consequences of this emotionally charged end-of-life issue?

Featuring Interviews With:

• Dr. Robert Olvera, advocate for SB 128
• Anita Freeman, advocate for SB 128
• Dr. Vincent Nguyen, hospice and palliative care physician
• Norma Vescovo, CEO, Independent Living Center of Southern California