California became the fifth state in the U.S. to allow assisted suicide when Gov. Jerry Brown signed the End of Life Option Act into law on Oct. 5.
The law would allow medical doctors to prescribe lethal doses of certain medications to patients who want to end their lives.
For years, Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) has advocated for an assisted suicide law in California. The state was never able to get one passed until now.
According to Jackson, the reason is because she’s received more support from the medical and disability communities than in the past. Previously, there was pushback from medical groups, particularly from oncology associations.
“It’s obviously a very controversial issue,” Jackson told the Sun. “But it should be an option available to people who are at the end of their lives. They’re suffering and in extraordinary pain.”
Oregon legalized assisted-suicide in 1997.
In 2014, California resident Brittany Maynard was diagnosed with astrocytoma, a type of brain cancer, and she moved Oregon to take advantage of the state’s Death with Dignity law. Maynard passed away on Nov. 29, 2014.
California’s law only applies to mentally competent patients who doctors agree have only six months or less to live.
Jackson acknowledges that the law could be misused, but stressed that protections were added.
In May, a Santa Barbara County grand jury indicted 89-year-old Marjorie Good for the first-degree murder of her daughter Heidi Good Swiacki, who was suffering from advanced Lou Gehrig’s disease and died in March 2013 after her breathing tube was disconnected and she was given a toxic dose of medication.
Wanda Nelson, Good’s nurse, was also arrested and charged with the same crime. A trial has been scheduled for Nov. 10 in Department 7 at the Santa Maria Courthouse, according to court records.
“The law makes it clear that we don’t allow that kind of behavior,” Jackson told the Sun, adding that she didn’t want to get into the moral issues regarding the case. “The person themselves would have to take that final measure, which is a series of medications. They would not be assisted in that regard.”
This article appears in Oct 15-22, 2015.