California’s Assisted Suicide Law: Are Some Lives Not Worth Living, or are All Lives Precious?

by Jonathan Abbamonte
Population Research Institute


At what point can we say that a life no longer matters?

Is it at the point when medical expenses become too costly or burdensome for relatives? Or perhaps is it at the point when someone feels they have outlived their usefulness or are just not able to do the things they love to do anymore?

For California lawmakers, it seems that their answer to the last two questions would be a resounding yes. The assisted suicide law passed by the California legislature last year, euphemistically titled the “End of Life Option Act,” just took effect. The newly implemented law makes it legal for doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to patients who request them and who meet just a few qualifications.

While assisted suicide has been legal for decades in Oregon, and for several years in other states like Washington, Montana, and Vermont, the newly implemented California law will proliferate assisted killing to an unprecedented scale in the United States. It is estimated that the number of assisted deaths will now triple as a result of the procedure being legalized in California, home to nearly 40 million Americans.


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