Doctor’s Outraged By California’s Assisted Suicide Policy

A group of Christian doctors is suing the state of California over a law that forces doctors to be involved in physician-assisted suicide. The 2015 End Of Life Options Act, legalized assisted suicide in California making physicians’ participation in patients’ suicides optional. However, recent changes to the law have forced doctors into being part of the process when they diagnose a patient as being terminally ill.

Doctors who refuse to diagnose a terminal patient, determine a terminal patient’s decision-making ability, or inform a patient of their legal right to request lethal medication could face civil and criminal penalties as well as professional discipline according to the doctor’s attorneys.

In order for patients to qualify for assisted suicide, they must request a lethal dose of drugs on two separate occasions. Initially, the assisted suicide law required a 15-day wait between those requests, but the change in the law only requires 48 hours, according to court documents. Doctors initiate the process by recording both of the patients’ required requests for lethal medication. At that time a second doctor may administer the lethal medication when the patient is ready, attorneys explained.

A hospice physician who is suing the state said patients experiencing the pain of terminal illness sometimes achieve pain control, but it could take longer than 48 hours, according to his attorneys.

He also said patients are often exhausted, have questionable mental capacity, and are pressured by family to go through with assisted suicide, according to the physician’s attorneys.

Two doctors are fighting to legalize assisted suicide in Massachusetts. Physician-assisted suicide is already legal in ten states and the District of Columbia.