California Bill Would Legalize Assisted Suicide, Schwarzenegger Undecided

LifeNews.com ^ | LifeNews.com | Steven Ertelt

[nickcarraway]

Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Two California legislators plan to introduce a proposal in the Golden State during the next legislative session that would make it only the second in the nation to allow assisted suicide.

Patty Berg, D-Santa Rosa, and Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, both state representatives, are drafting legislation that would be modeled after Oregon's first-in-the-nation law authorizing the grisly practice.

The lawmakers say they should be able to get the legislation passed through the Democrat-controlled legislature.

Stuart Waldman, chief of staff for Levine, told the San Mateo County Times newspaper, "We wouldn't be doing it if we didn't think we could get it passed."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could then prove key, since he has not commented on whether he would sign such legislation if it lands on his desk.

Berg, who is the chair of the Assembly committee on aging, said, "We're working closely with Oregon, and we've had a couple other states interested in working with us as well, because as California goes, so does the rest of the nation."

The legislation would face strong opposition from pro-life groups, Catholic organizations, and possibly from the state medical association. Similar doctors groups have opposed assisted suicide bills in other states.

California Medical Association spokesman Ron Lopp told the Times that his group has not taken a position on the proposed legislation, but said the organization opposes assisted suicide.

Berg and Levine will be joined in the effort by Portland-based Compassion in Dying, a group that supports assisted suicide and euthanasia.

The final outcome of assisted suicide in California, however, may depend on whether the Supreme Court steps into a legal battle between Oregon and the Bush administration.

Attorney General John Ashcroft, expected to leave the Justice Department in the next couple of months, ruled that the drugs used in assisted suicides in Oregon violate the Controlled Substances Act because they are not used for a medical purpose. All of the drugs used in the Oregon suicides are under federal regulations.

Oregon and assisted suicide advocates challenged the ruling, and the lawsuit is now headed to the Supreme Court.

Voters in Oregon initially approved its law in 1997 allowing assisted suicide and then voted down an effort to strike the law in 1998. Some 171 people have ended their lives under the law.

In Michigan and Maine, voters overwhelmingly disapproved assisted suicide proposals. Legislation to legalize the practice has failed in Hawaii, Wyoming and Vermont.

In a 1997 case, the Supreme Court ruled that no right to assisted suicide exists, but states could decide whether to allow assisted suicides to take place.

ACTION: Contact Governor Schwarzenegger and urge opposition to assisted suicide. Write him at: State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814, (p) 916-445-284, (f) 916-445-4633, (e) governor@governor.ca.gov

Related web sites:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger -

http://www.governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov_homepage.jsp

[nickcarraway]

Thanks

[nickcarraway]

I'll be right beside you.

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Suicide in California = a good start......

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Another thing, why does anybody need help committing suicide? It's been done since time began. If someone really wants out they don't need a doctor or nurse's help.

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Suicide in California = a good start......

[nickcarraway]

When I get back later I will. It was the state of Oregon's own stuff- from the pro-euthansia side. It was found to happen in the Netherlands too.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

In California, it's damn near impossible to be both right and effective. At least it is on the state-wide level...

[TheDon]

Arnold seems to be following in the footsteps of another famous Austrian leader on life issues. I'm amazed he doesn't see the parallel. Actually, it disturbs me a great deal.

[TheDon]

I have to agree. It is quite disturbing.

[blackie]

Thanks nickcarraway ~ I live in Oregon and haven't heard any horror stories about doc assisted suicide.

[DieselBoy]

This is a slippery slope that people are beginning to ride down. Where and when will it end? Next the government will extend measures like these to infants, or the disabled. Bills like this will just snowball.

I was telling my friends the same thing about Prop 71. If it was such an ingenious bill then why didnt private corporations foot the bill instead of the taxpayer??? Because the research probably wont work and 3 billion dollars that could have gone somewhere useful just got pissed away.

The state assembly is passing bills like crazy, while not fixing the deficit problem and doing nothing useful for the state.

When i read articles telling me about how the assembly is trying to pass a bill telling some chef that he cant fatten gesse for his busieness i wonder what the hell am i paying taxes for ? im just outraged.

How much longer are we going to be silent???

The state assembly and the democrats here need to be taught a lesson. They need to be taught that by doing a lot more harm than good in the Golden State then they will be punished.

Conservatives in California need to speak up! Im tired of moaning about the state government here. Instead, Im tentatively plotting to run and try to unseat one of the lefties here in my district either assemblywoman Gloria Negrete or Senator Nell Soto. I think that im going to have to take a radical approach to a problem like this because something needs to be done.

[NYer]

Euthanasia

Often disguised by the name "mercy killing," euthanasia also is a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person.

In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person (cf. EV 73).

EV John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life)

Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[Unam Sanctam]

Did he receive any catechesis at all over there in Austria?