A mother whose only son, Andrew ‘Drew’ Flack, died peacefully after using the state’s medical aid in dying law, health and community advocates today praised legislators in the Senate Health Committee for overwhelmingly passing the End of Life Option Act SB 403. The bill would remove the sunset provision from the current law, making medical aid in dying a permanent option in California. The bill, authored by Senator Catherine Blakespear, now advances to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The video was released today as legislators held a hearing on SB 403, a bill that would only amend the End of Life Option Act, by removing a sunset clause that would make medical aid in dying a permanent option in California. All other provisions of the law would remain unchanged, including the multi-step request process, eligibility confirmation, and multiple patient requests. 

The only people who qualify for the End of Life Option Act are mentally capable terminally-ill adults with a terminal prognosis of six months or less to live. These individuals must also have the capacity to self-administer the medication. 

“For the last 10 years, the End of Life Option Act has been working as intended,” said Compassion & Choices Chief Advocacy Officer Charmaine Manansala.  ”SB 403 does not change the law in any way – it simply removes the sunset provision. California is the only state in the nation that has a medical aid in dying law with a sunset provision, and we are grateful to Senator Blakespear for championing this bill. Removing the sunset will provide comfort to terminally-ill Californians  so they can be secure in their ability to access the law in the future, if that is what they desire.”

Volunteers gathered in Sacramento in support of SB 403.

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 documented or substantiated incidents of abuse or coercion across the authorized jurisdictions since Oregon implemented the first medical aid-in-dying law in 1997.

Two years have passed since Suzy’s only son, Andrew (Drew) Flack, died peacefully in his sleep, without pain, after a courageous battle with aggressive colorectal cancer. Andrew was a special education teacher and an avid hockey player who spent his last months of life advocating for medical aid in dying by recording a video and through his blog and podcast. He was only 34 years old when he died at his home in Oceanside on November 16, 2022.

“Drew’s final moments were absolutely beautiful, and they were just exactly as he wanted them to be,” Suzy says in the video. “Even more than death itself, he feared that his body would just deteriorate to the point where he had no quality of life.”

The End of Life Option Act holds particular significance for Dr. Catherine Sonquist Forest, a Los Altos family physician who prescribes aid in dying medication, whose spouse of 37 years utilized the law in 2021.

“After learning [Will] ‘s diagnosis was terminal, he turned to me and said, ‘Catherine, if you hadn’t worked on the aid-in-dying law, I would be living every last day of my life absolutely terrified,” she said during the hearing. “The law gave him peace and let him focus on the time he had left with our children…. This compassionate option gave Will back a sense of control, even as everything else was slipping away.”

Bonnie McKeegan, a licensed clinical social worker from Grass Valley, testified about her mother’s death to breast cancer in 2018.

“Cancer is a horrific way to die, and sometimes even the best hospice care cannot manage a dying person’s suffering adequately, as was my mother’s experience,” she said. “Because of California’s End of Life Option Act (EOLOA), my mother died peacefully in her sleep, held by my father and me.”

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 the video, Suzy recalled the evening her only son took the medications, surrounded by his loved ones, including Jaxson, his roommate’s dog. She said a nurse mixed the medication and gave Andrew a spoon with raspberry sorbet.

“Within two minutes, he was snoring, and my ex-husband looked over at me…we both smiled, because Drew had not had a good night’s sleep for many years,” she said. “…The snoring was just music to our ears. Drew’s final words before he fell asleep were, ‘I’m happy.’” 

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.”  No significant or systemic abuses of the law have been reported.

Medical aid in dying is authorized in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana (via a state Supreme Court ruling), Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Washington, D.C. and  Vermont.

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