Read: Should We Stop Using the Phrase ‘Assisted Suicide’?
On Monday, California became the fifth state to pass an assisted dying bill, joining Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and Montana as allowing terminally ill people to choose to end their own lives.
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In a letter to the State Assembly, California Governor Jerry Brown explained why he signed the bill into law, despite fierce opposition from the Catholic Church and other groups:
In the end, I was left to reflect on what I would want in the face of my own death.
I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain. I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill. And I wouldn’t deny that right to others.
The bill was prompted in part by 29-year-old right-to-die activist Brittany Maynard, a California woman who took her own life last year after being diagnosed with brain cancer. The very public journey required Maynard to move from California to Oregon, where such suicides were legal, and made her the face of the organization Death with Dignity.
Following her death, Maynard’s husband Dan Diaz quit his job and began working for Death with Dignity full time in an effort to change the law in California and other states.
Meanwhile, opponents of assisted suicide condemned the news. In a statement, the anti-assisted suicide group Not Dead Yet said it was “devastated and disgusted” by Brown’s decision to sign the bill, and that the governor’s “failure to veto the bill amounts to a breach of his duty to protect all Californians, not just the privileged few who can count on high quality health care and the support of a loving family.”
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