Compassion & Choices today applauded legislators in the Assembly Committee on Health for approving Senate Bill 403 (SB 403) on Tuesday, with a final vote of 13-2. The bill, authored by Sen. Catherine Blakespear, would eliminate the sunset in the End of Life Option Act and make medical aid in dying a permanent option for terminally ill Californians.
All other provisions of the law would remain unchanged, including the multi-step request process, eligibility confirmation, and multiple patient requests. The law went into effect June 9, 2016; the sunset clause currently causes the law to expire on January 1, 2031.
The bill now advances to the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
If SB 403 becomes law, medical aid in dying will become a permanent option in California. Medical aid in dying gives a terminally ill and mentally capable adult with six months or less to live the option to request a prescription from their healthcare provider for medication they can take to die on their own terms.
Bonnie McKeegan, LCSW, a retired Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a background in mental health, chemical dependency, and medical social work, also testified Tuesday. Her mother, Pamela Harris, had breast cancer; she accessed California’s End of Life Option Act and died in 2018 at age 74.
“In 2018, this law helped my mom have an end-of-life experience she desperately hoped for,” said Ms. McKeegan. “She died peacefully in her sleep, held by me and my dad.”
Catherine Forest, M.D., M.P.H., a Los Altos family physician who prescribes aid in dying medication, and whose partner of 37 years utilized the law in 2021, testified about the legislation Tuesday. Quoting her partner, Will, she recalled him saying:
“Catherine, if you hadn’t worked on the aid-in-dying law, I would be living every last day of my life absolutely terrified,“ said Dr. Forest. “As a physician who sees how this important law works on the ground, I urge you to vote yes on SB 403, and make the End of Life Option Act permanent for all Californians.”
Medical aid-in-dying laws have strict safeguards and practice requirements to ensure the highest standard of care, as described in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. In fact, there have been no substantiated cases of fraud or abuse of medical aid in dying in California.
Three in four Californians (75%) support the End of Life Option Act, including the majority of every demographic group surveyed. That includes: Hispanic Californians (68%), Black Californians (70%), Asian Californians (76%), and white Californians (82%), according to the California Health Care Foundation.
In California, 1,281 terminally ill Californians obtained prescriptions for medical aid in dying and 884 patients (69%) took the medication in 2023. The aid in dying medication was prescribed by 337 unique physicians. The underlying illnesses of the individuals who utilized medical aid in dying were: cancer: 63.8%, cardiovascular: 12.1%, neurological disease: 8.8 %, respiratory diseases 8%, and other causes 7.2%. The report states that 93.8% were receiving hospice or palliative care.
Medical aid in dying is authorized in 12 jurisdictions: California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Montana (via a state Supreme Court ruling), Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Washington, D.C. and Vermont.
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