California’s Right-to-Die Bill

Gov. Jerry Brown of California is hearing plenty from opponents and supporters of a bill state lawmakers passed earlier this month that would allow some terminally ill patients to hasten their death. Modeled after the pioneering right-to-die bill Oregon put into effect in 1997, California’s End of Life Option Act would allow people in the advanced stages of a terminal illness to obtain a lethal dose of painkillers from a physician.

Mr. Brown should sign the bill into law.

The bill includes robust safeguards. Patients would have to make two oral requests for the prescription, two weeks apart, and one in writing. Two doctors would have to certify that the patient is likely to die within six months. The written request must be made in front of witnesses who are asked to certify that the patient is of sound mind and is not being coerced.

Four right-to-die bills have foundered in California’s Legislature since the first one was introduced in 1995. However, Brittany Maynard’s death last year gave the issue renewed visibility and political momentum. The 29-year-old California woman, a teacher with inoperable brain cancer, moved to Oregon to take control of the timing of her death.

Her decision became a national story after she wrote an essay titled “My Right to Death With Dignity at 29.”

Ms. Maynard’s was not the only personal story that lawmakers heard before passing the bill. Assembly member Susan Eggman, one of the authors of the legislation, spoke movingly about her experiences as a hospice worker and the recent death of relatives. After the Assembly approved the bill in a 43-to-34 vote, patients who witnessed it, some in wheelchairs, wept as they thanked those who backed the initiative.

Opponents of right-to-die bills, including the Catholic Church, have called them immoral. Some have argued that assisted suicide has become an attractive option for patients only as a result of the high cost and uneven quality of palliative care in the nation. Their arguments are unpersuasive.

Medical professionals who deal with terminally ill patients are routinely asked for help by desperate families. In states where aiding a patient in agony to die early is a crime, doctors and nurses sometimes choose to assist secretly, even though doing so can lead to their prosecution. Others have no recourse other than to recommend that patients starve themselves to death.

Californians deserve better. As he weighs the merits of the bill before him, Mr. Brown should closely study the experience of Oregon, Washington and Vermont, the three states that have passed right-to-die laws. Medical professionals in all three places have been skillful, compassionate and responsible in giving ailing patients the option to end their lives before their pain gets worse.