IMPORTANT UPDATE AT END OF BLOG!

California’s Governor Jerry Brownhas until Wednesday of this week – the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary – to determine whether or not California will join the small group of states that allow physician assisted suicide by signing into law a bill that was passed during an extraordinary legislative process that has many crying foul.

According to the Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF), Gov. Brown is deciding this week wether or not to veto legislation that would legalize physician-assisted suicide by permitting physicians to prescribe so-called “aid-in-dying drugs” for their patients.

The bill, ABX2-15, was introduced during an extraordinary procedure by which the Governor can call the Legislature into session to enact legislation that cannot wait until the next regularly scheduled term. Governor Brown convened an extraordinary legislative session on June 19, 2015 to secure funding for Medi-Cal to provide for millions of new Medi-Cal beneficiaries under the Affordable Care Act.

Supporters of physician-assisted suicide, which were not successful in passing legislation during the regular session, exploited the special Medi-Cal session to advance their agenda behind closed doors.

“We expect our state legislators to uphold the State Constitution and not bend the law to further their own ends,” said LLDF Executive Director Alexandra Snyder. “Californians have a right to an open, deliberative, and transparent legislative process when it comes to law and policy changes that are literally a matter of life and death.”

The bill in question, which was passed in the wake of the highly publicized death of Brittany Maynard, a 29 year-old victim of a brain tumor whose tragic plight was exploited by the pro-euthanasia activist group Compassion and Choices, is similar to existing laws that are riddled with loopholes.

Brittany Maynard

For instance, ABX2-15 bases the decision to provide deadly medication on the subjective and often unreliable practice of estimating a person’s life expectancy after a terminal diagnosis, reports the California Family Alliance.

It also disregards the role of depression that is frequently associated with terminal diagnoses, and only suggests that doctors refer a patient to counseling “if appropriate.”

Advances in palliative and hospice care, which can ease a terminal patient’s suffering during the end stages of their disease, are downplayed in the bill.

Even more disturbing, the bill contains no provision requiring the tracking and review of the total number of assisted suicide cases, which will prevent the kind of transparency needed to keep the public informed of the impact of this law.

According to the LLDF, this poorly written law has other problems, such as the questionable legality of its passage.

“While the California Constitution permits the Governor to issue proclamations to convene extraordinary legislative sessions, the Legislature is prohibited from enacting bills that are not the specific subject of the proclamation,” the LLDF states.

In this case, Governor Brown’s proclamation expressly states that the purpose of the extraordinary session on Medi-Cal is to “stabilize the General Fund’s costs for Medi-Cal” and to “provide rate increases for providers of Medi-Cal and developmental disability services.” The Legislature was specifically tasked with enacting legislation to expand access to services, increase oversight, and “reduce the cost of providing health care services.”

The LLDF believes that the California legislature acted outside the permissible scope of its authority under the California Constitution in passing AB2X-15 because physician-assisted suicide was not the subject of the extraordinary session.

Gov. Brown is certainly aware of the potential legal problems and has said that the extraordinary session was not the proper vehicle for AB2X-15. He has recommended that the bill be taken up during the next session.

But whether or not he chooses to veto the bill will be seen this week as the deadline for his action on the bill is October 7.

Pro-life groups are asking all concerned citizens to join in prayer that the Governor will veto this faulty bill and spare the citizens of the great state of California from what will certainly be its deadly ramifications.

UPDATE 10/5/15 – Governor Brown has signed ABX2-15 into law, making California to become the fifth state to allow the terminally ill to end their lives. It remains to be seen if the controvesial means used to pass the bill will lead to legal action that could delay its implementation.

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