VICTORY! Assisted Suicide Law in California is STRUCK DOWN

ASSISTED SUICIDE LAW STRUCK DOWN!

from Alexandra Snyder, Executive Director
Life Legal Defense Foundation


California’s assisted suicide law was struck down as unconstitutional on Wednesday afternoon.

Last week, Judge Daniel Ottolia held that the passage of the Act violated Section IV of the California Constitution and gave Attorney General Xavier Becerra five days to file a motion with a higher court to have his ruling stayed pending appeal.

Yesterday, the Fourth District Court of Appeal denied the Attorney General’s motion for a stay, effectively striking down the “End of Life Option Act.”

Life Legal filed a lawsuit challenging the End of Life Option Act in June 2016, citing numerous concerns about the Act, inclding lack of patient safeguards and the unlawful manner in which the law was passed. In March 2018, we filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings seeking to have the law permanently enjoined and voided as unconstitutional.

The End of Life Option Act was passed during an extraordinary legislative session convened to address California’s Medicaid funding shortfall, services for the disabled, and home health support. The Constitution requires any legislation introduced during such an extraordinary session to be related to the purpose of the session.

Judge Daniel Ottolia found that the End of Life Option Act “does not fall within the scope of access to healthcare services” and “is not a matter of healthcare funding.” Moreover, the court ruled that, “The legislation decriminalizing assisted suicide cannot be deemed a matter incidental to the purpose of the emergency session.” This is not a “preliminary” ruling; it is a final order declaring that the End of Life Option Act was passed contrary to the requirements of the California Constitution.

“Life Legal has always maintained that the End of Life Act violates the Constitution and California’s long-standing public policy protecting its citizens from being ‘helped’ to commit suicide,” noted Life Legal Executive Director Alexandra Snyder. “We are pleased that the court’s ruling will restore the protection that the Act removed from the ill and vulnerable.”

While California’s assisted suicide law may still be in effect at this moment, it is only because the trial court has not yet signed the judgment confirming its ruling on the motion for judgment on the pleadings, finding the law unconstitutional. It is irresponsible for anyone to suggest, to the public and particularly to a cadre of doctors who are writing dozens of lethal prescriptions each year, that the assisted suicide law will continue to be in effect pending the ruling of the appellate court.

Assisted suicide laws exploit patients at their most vulnerable. Won't you stand with us to protect people like Stephanie and others from the pressures they face under the End of Life Option Act?

The mission of Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF) is to give innocent and helpless human beings of any age, particularly unborn children, a trained and committed defense against the threat of death, and to support their advocates in the nation’s courtrooms. LLDF will accomplish its mission and purpose through the law and education.   For more information or to make a donation to help them with their work, please use this link.    Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?   National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131. In Southeast Penna:  Call the Community Women's Center at  215-826-8090 If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.

California Looking to AID, ADVISE, & ENCOURAGE Assisted Suicide

The California legislature is considering legislation that would decriminalize "aiding, advising, and encouraging" physician-assisted suicide 

California has gone so far as to require state-run mental hospitals to provide assisted suicide drugs to any patient that requests them—including patients who are hospitalized because of a suicide threat or attempt.

from Alexandra Snyder Executive Director AB 282 (Jones-Sawyer) expressly exempts from criminal prosecution "aiding, advising, or encouraging" physician-assisted suicide. The bill’s authors allege that the bill is merely a “technical clean-up” to the Penal Code after the implementation of the "End of Life Option Act" in 2016. In reality, AB 282 allows actions that the authors of the End of Life Option Act promised the public would not be permitted—namely placing pressure on vulnerable patients to prematurely end their lives. Medical literature indicates that up to 77% of people diagnosed with a terminal illness suffer from major depression. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology found a “statistically significant association between clinical depression and the desire for hastened death.” Under ABA 282, terminally ill patients—many of whom are suffering from depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions—will be aided, advised, or encouraged to request and ingest a lethal prescription. Decriminalizing behavior that leads someone to be talked into committing suicide violates the State's obligation to protect people from self-harm. The End of Life Option Act also permits a person who stands to benefit from the patient's death (such as a health care facility owner or beneficiary) to sign a patient’s request for aid-in-dying drugs. AB 282 would allow an "interested witness" to legally aid, advise, and encourage a patient to commit suicide—and sign off on the method of suicide—while gaining finacially from the patient’s death. Life Legal is challenging California's physician-assisted suicide law and we need YOUR help! California lawmakers are trying to do everything in their power to facilitate suicide for patients who need real medical care. Our next hearing in the assisted suicide case is schedule for May 15 and we are scheduled to go to trial this Fall! So much is at stake and we are very grateful for your faithful prayers and support!    Contact the CA Senate Public Safety Committee and urge members to VOTE NO on AB 282. Phone: (916) 651-4118 Fax: (916) 445-4688   The mission of Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF) is to give innocent and helpless human beings of any age, particularly unborn children, a trained and committed defense against the threat of death, and to support their advocates in the nation’s courtrooms. LLDF will accomplish its mission and purpose through the law and education.  For more information or to make a donation to help them with their work, please use this link.