Posted on 03/28/2007 1:06:44 PM PDT by SmithL
SACRAMENTO - Democratic lawmakers Tuesday easily advanced a bill allowing physician-assisted suicide, an indication the bill could sweep through the Assembly due to a powerful new ally.
With backing from Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, the Judiciary Committee voted 7-3 to approve AB374. The vote was along party lines in the Democrat-dominated lower house.
Senate leader Don Perata, an Oakland Democrat, has indicated he is open to the bill. Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't ruled out signing it but said he'd prefer that voters decide the matter.
The bill passed a legislative committee in 2005 but fell short of enough support to pass out of the Legislature before the end of the 2005-06 session.
After the hearing, one of the bill's co-authors, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, said he foresees getting the bill on the governor's desk this year. The proposal, on a highly emotional issue, has encountered numerous roadblocks over the last two years.
During Tuesday's debate, Levine and co-author Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Eureka, argued doctor-assisted suicide is an option needed in California so patients can avoid pain and die with dignity, if they wish.
Foes, including groups representing the disabled and seniors, said there is too much opportunity for abuse of such a law by HMOs, relatives and others.
AB374, dubbed the "California Compassionate Choices Act" and modeled after a nine-year-old Oregon law, would allow a California adult, diagnosed with less than six months to live, to get a lethal prescription -- after clearing several complex hurdles.
A string of supporters and opponents testified about the bill, which has divided doctors, Christians, Latinos and the elderly. Statewide polls show majority support, however.
Tom McDonald, a 77-year-old Oroville man fighting cancer, choked up when he told lawmakers he would shoot himself if the bill fails.
"I value my personal liberty and right to make our own decisions about health and our demise. I don't want to spend my final months sick with chemotherapy. I don't want to lose control of my dignity," McDonald said.
His longtime wife, Delores, added: "He said it all."
Marilyn Golden of Berkeley, who uses a wheelchair and represents the Disability Rights, Education and Defense Fund, said the proposal would be "bad public policy," and that "safeguards are inadequate" with "too many unanswered questions."
Golden said there would be too little "distinction between people who are chronically ill and those who are terminally ill."
Two Democratic lawmakers on the committee -- Paul Krekorian of Burbank and Mike Feuer of Los Angeles -- challenged Schwarzenegger's wish that voters decide the issue. The governor and lawmakers are elected to make these kinds of decisions for the people, they said.
One of the GOP lawmakers who opposed the bill, Rick Keene of Chico, said of AB374: "We have other options."
Amid heated discussion of whether one side or the other was trying to impose its morals on others, Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, who opposed the bill, said, "You better darn well believe I want to impose my morality on these people (proponents)."
The headline is misleading. The Legislature is not contemplating their own suicide. They actually want other people killed.
If a person wants to die, they will find a way on their own, it is done every day in every state in the Union.
Open season on the the poor, the weak, the defenseless. Go examine the history of this sort of law in the Netherlands; there the "doctors" can and will kill without permission of the victim depending on their whim or notion of who should live or die.
Wow, but is it covered by your health insurance.
Later read/pingout.
Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't ruled out signing it
OK, let's see the Catholic Church's leaders take a stand on 'good Catholic' Arnold. Hell will freeze over first...
'How to Control Health Care Costs 101'; coming to every medical professional's mailbox soon...
Another reason to leave California.
DAYEM, are the Rodents in the legislature so ignorant of what's happening in Eurpoe? The slippery slope is very evident there, and now they want to step on it in California. Astonishing.
Heck, if I had known they were in that big a hurry I'd been out there already with a big old hose and my old 1948 Hupmobile idling outside the chamber door.
Democrats are slick, ain't they?
First they tax the hell out of you your whole life in order to lull you into the lie that you'll be well-taken care of when you get old and infirm.
Now they're about to pass a bill to make sure you can't even take advantage of your tax money then. They'll make it as easy as possible for your friends, family or the state to kill you.
That way they can keep huge amounts of money for their pet projects.
Darn, I was willing to take the light rail down there and assist them.
Well, we kill defenseless babies don't we?
Let's kill nearly defenseless old folks.
And while we are at it, let's kill Jews, Gypsies, Poles, and other unpure.
This is still the Third Reich is it not?
But capital punishment of evil people is an outrage.
Anyone notice how the inmates are running the asylum now?
Ain't that the truth. Once they hook us up with Universal Healthcare, then they'll help to cover the outrageous costs by killing off anyone they deem to be suffering. They'll convince them or their family that they would be better off gone via doctors who buy into the leftist propaganda. Of course, as usual they manipulate the language to make it sound as if this is such a wonderful, kind thing. The leftist pro-death culture loves to toy with language. Sometimes I think the left thinks people are nothing more than animals to them who are getting in the way of their pet projects and agenda.
The lawmakers won't address any "real" issues in this state, but they will make a law like this, and a never ending list of Nanny laws...*$&#@...
Just do it Mac, don't make a murderer out of some Doctor. They kill enough people by mistake as it is. Our Little Patty Berg, the shriveled up Prune in the Assembly, is the instigator of this travesty. Her bill didn't make it out of committee last year...
Sometimes I think the left thinks people are nothing more than animals to them who are getting in the way of their pet projects and agenda.
You are absolutely right. I would go so far as to rephrase the above to read: ....thinks people who don't have degrees from Harvard or Yale are nothing more than animals.....
Sadly, it is children with disabilities who will be targeted too, particularly any unborns where 'tests' show there 'might' be a problem (that would be a 'burden' to society and be too expensive for 'the system'). Sad times.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.