Berg sees recent ruling as a vote of confidence for the California Compassionate Choice Act

By Shane Mizer, The Eureka Reporter, Jan. 19, 2006

On the heels of Wednesday's Supreme Court ruling in the case of Gonzales v. Oregon, which upheld that Oregon's Death with Dignity Act of 1997 is not in violation of the federal Controlled Substance Act of 1970 in a 6-3 vote, [California] Assemblywoman Patty Berg and Assemblyman Lloyd Levine held a press conference to discuss how this decision might affect a similar bill scheduled for review in the state Senate.

"I'm elated by the Supreme Court's decision today," Berg (D-Eureka) said. "I think it boils down that the way we die is not the government's business and that you cannot manipulate the government to impose your belief onto others."

If the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the federal government could have prevented physician-assisted suicides by restricting doctors from prescribing lethal medications under the CSA.

Many are interpreting the decision as a win for advocates of physician-assisted suicide, while others are choosing to see the case as simply a win in favor of states' rights.

Berg and Levine (D-Van Nuys) look favorably on the Supreme Court's decision and both believe that it is likely to improve chances for the passage of the California Compassionate Choices Act, or Assembly Bill 654, the two co-authored and modeled after the ODWDA, which is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee in March of this year and by the full Senate in May.

"This decision by the Supreme Court certainly gives us a lot of momentum," Levine said. "I believe we will get this bill passed this year and signed by the governor."

According to Levine, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's staff has indicated that the governor is open to the idea of the Compassionate Choices Act and has reviewed the Oregon law to see exactly how the state has implemented physician-assisted suicide.

In the press conference, Levine went so far as to include that some members of Schwarzenegger's family have struggled with this issue themselves in an effort to affirm that the governor is not predisposed against it.

Marilyn Golden, an East Bay representative of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and the California Disability Alliance who did not attend the press conference but is involved with groups rallying against the Compassionate Choice Act, said why she doesn't think physician-assisted suicide is good practice.

"This Supreme Court case was not about whether assisted suicide is good or bad policy; it was a question over states' rights with respect to the Controlled Substance Act," Golden said.

Golden expressed concern over states adopting laws similar to the ODWDA because of the potential impact in a profit-driven managed health care system.

"If you become ill and need life-sustaining medical care but do not have health coverage, then is assisted suicide really a choice?" Golden said. "In Holland, where the practice has been legal for some time, Dutch doctors agree that it should not be legal in the United States under its current health care system."

Aside from the two organizations that Golden represents, she also included that the American Medical Association and the California Medical Association both oppose the idea of physician-assisted suicide as well.

During the press conference, Berg said more than 70 percent of Californians favor physician-assisted suicide according to numbers found in a statewide Field Poll study released in March 2005.

One of the questions asked in the Field Poll asked participants if they themselves were terminally ill and expected to die within six months, whether they would want their doctor to be able to assist them in dying, if requested.

Sixty-two percent of those polled who were 65 or older believed that they should be able to receive assistance by a physician in ending their lives.

Under the ODWDA, a patient must be diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and be given only six months left to live.

Another requirement under the ODWDA is that physicians must recommend alternatives like hospice care to patients interested in suicide.

Shirley Gray, a bereavement coordinator with Heart of the Redwoods Community Hospice in Garberville, said the mission of hospice care is to neither hasten nor delay death.

"Most people who have a chance to discuss the option of self-administered suicide later decide that they don't actually want to go through with it," Gray said.

Other than California, the only state with pending legislation to legalize physician-assisted suicide is Vermont.

Shane Mizer can be reached at smizer@eurekareporter.com.

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