A Central Coast lawmaker wants Californians to legally have an option to end their lives when diagnosed with a terminal condition.
Senator Bill Monning (D- Carmel) co-authored the proposed legislation with Lois Wolk (D- Davis) which would give someone with less than six months to live the ability to procure an 'end of life' prescription. Two independent physicians must first determine the terminal nature of the illness and the patient must be mentally competent to be eligible for the self-administered, lethal prescription.
Monning says the motive behind SB 128 is to give terminally-ill patients the autonomy to control their passing with the option of making it less painful.
States like Vermont and Oregon already have long had this option available for residents.
Monning says that during the 17 years Oregon has provided this option, 1,300 people have successfully secured the prescription and 700 have used it. He says although a majority of patients don't end up using the prescription, it's important to have the option.
"Having that ability to secure that prescription, offers a piece of mind that is hard to quantify. But the person having the means, should the suffering become unbearable, should their decompensation become unbearable, they have this option within this very limited window of guaranteed, pending death," said Monning.
Only the patient can request or rescind the lethal prescription and the person's cause of death must be recorded as the underlying terminal illness, not a suicide.
Considering the controversial nature of SB 128, Monning has already contacted parties like the Catholic church to discuss the issue.