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Published: August 28, 2008

“Unnecessary and possibly dangerous”

Watered down euthanasia bill seems sure bet for passage in state legislature

Catholic physicians and other doctors in California who oppose mercy killing would be forced to provide terminally ill patients with information on morally questionable “end-of-life care options” under a bill now pending in the state legislature.

The bill, AB 2747, is a repeatedly amended and watered down version of an original euthanasia measure sponsored by Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Eureka. Berg’s original bill, termed a “stealth assisted-suicide bill” by opponents, would have allowed doctors to administer “palliative sedation” to deliberately induce a coma, and to starve patients to death under a provision called “voluntary stopping of eating and drinking.” Also excised from the original bill was a provision requiring terminally ill patients to be referred to “Compassion & Choices,” a pro-euthanasia organization formerly known as the Hemlock Society.

The California Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state's bishops, lobbied hard against Berg’s bill and was instrumental in obtaining amendments that removed the most objectionable aspects of the measure. Still, the Catholic Conference remains opposed to the bill. “Amended version less egregious that previous, but still unnecessary and possibly dangerous,” says the Catholic Conference web site.

Under the bill now awaiting final legislative action, physicians would be required to inform terminally ill patients, among other things, that they have the “right of refusal or withdrawal from life-sustaining treatment.”

The bill’s official legislative title is the “California Right to Know End-of-Life Act of 2008,” although the Sacramento Bee described it in an Aug. 21 story as “right-to-die legislation.” The state Senate approved Berg’s bill on Aug. 20 by a vote of 21 to 17, and sent it back to the Assembly, where it originated, for concurrence in some minor changes. The Assembly is expected to approve the Senate’s amendments as early as next week and send the bill to the governor for his signature.

Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, told the Bee that doctors who treat cancer patients have expressed opposition to Berg’s bill because they consider it government meddling at a time when patients need compassion. "What they don't need is another governmental intrusion into the relationship between themselves and their doctor," Aanestad told the newspaper. Worse, said Aanestad, requiring physicians to provide "a laundry list developed by Sacramento politicians" years before it might be necessary could lead depressed patients to make rash decisions and hasten their deaths before all possible treatments are tried, according to the Bee.

But Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, told the Sacramento newspaper that patients diagnosed with a terminal illness have the right to have their questions answered. "Right now, all too often, your questions are brushed aside," Kuehl told the Bee.

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