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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
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Angelika Just like in Germany, there's been an ongoing intense debate here in California during the last couple of years on the legality of assisted suicide. There have been numerous attempts to pass new regulations through the state senate to legalize assisted suicide for the terminally ill. Time and time again, however, new legislation failed to pass, but recently, supporters prevailed, when the California senate passed a new law, signed by governor Jerry Brown, which will take effect in January 2016.
It was long believed that Jerry Brown would veto the new law, since clerical organisations built up a lot of pressure and Jerry Brown obviously struggled with the decicision. To understand this, you need to know that Jerry Brown once wanted to become a Jesuit priest and had spent some time in a Jesuit seminar. But in the end, he signed the new law, and told that he finds it comforting to have the option of assisted suicide when his own life ends, should he become severely ill. After all, Jerry Brown is already 77 years old.
Since I'm working in the social field, my opinion is somewhat ambivalent when it comes to assisted suicide. I think it's more important to accompany people through the dying process, and for example make sure to prescribe appropriate medication to relieve any pain, as well as refrain from unnecessary diagnostics or treatments. Assisted suicide tends to easily wander off into hardly predictable gray areas. The new law requires two independent doctors in California to confirm that a patient has only six months left to live. The patient must be able to express their explicit will to die and must take the prescribed lethal medication themselves without assistance. Doctors and hospitals have the right to refuse to participate in the program.
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