Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Group Files Suit Against California Aid-In-Dying Law, Claiming It Violates Patients' Civil Rights
As a law went into effect Thursday allowing physicians to prescribe medicines to terminally ill patients to hasten their deaths, a group of doctors tried to overturn it in court. The Life Legal Defense Foundation, American Academy of Medical Ethics and several physicians have filed a lawsuit in Riverside County Superior Court claiming that the state’s new aid-in-dying law is unconstitutional. The End of Life Option Act allows patients with less than six months to live to obtain medicines from their doctor that would kill them. On Thursday, California became one of five states in the U.S. where the practice is legal. (Karlamangla, 6/9)
On the day California's controversial right-to-die law went into effect, opponents on Thursday headed to court to try to stop it. The day before, six doctors and the American Academy of Medical Ethics had filed a lawsuit in Riverside County challenging the state's new End of Life Option Act. (Seipel, 6/9)
California on Thursday became the fifth state to allow terminally ill patients to legally obtain drugs that will end their lives. With the implementation of the End of Life Option Act, Californians with six months or less to live now can request a prescription for lethal medications from their doctors. But obtaining a prescription won’t be easy or quick, and some people may not meet the law’s many requirements. (Bazar, 6/9)
Meanwhile, The New York Times profiles those who are going to be affected by the legislation —
On Thursday, California became the fourth state in the country to put in effect a law allowing assisted suicide for the terminally ill, what has come to be known as aid in dying. Lawmakers here approved the legislation last year, after Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old schoolteacher who had brain cancer, received international attention for her decision to move to Oregon, where terminally ill patients have been allowed to take drugs to die since 1997. Oregon was the first state to pass an assisted suicide law, and was followed by Washington and Vermont. Under a Montana court ruling, doctors cannot be prosecuted for helping terminally ill patients die, as long as the patient makes a written request. With the California law, 16 percent of the country’s population has a legal option for terminally ill patients to determine the moment of their death, up from 4 percent. (Medina, 6/9)
