Thursday 8 October 2015

California does something sensible

Following our failure to modernise the law for the dying here in the UK (see reference 1), the Californians have succeeded. Hopefully our MP's will take the time to ponder why a state like California, a place with much the same standing in the world as the UK, should choose to do this when they did not.

I quote from http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/10/05/446115171/california-governor-signs-physician-assisted-suicide-bill-into-law:

"With the stroke of a pen, California Governor Jerry Brown made it legal for physicians in the state to prescribe lethal doses of medications if their terminally ill patients wish to end their lives.

Brown signed the 'End of Life Act' into law on Monday, and in doing so California joins four other states — Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana — where patients' right to choose doctor-assisted death is protected either by law or court order.

In a statement Brown referred to the measure as 'not an ordinary bill because it deals with life and death'. He also said he considered a wide range of perspectives on the matter, including two of his doctors, champions of disability rights and even Archbishop Desmond Tutu".

Reference 1: http://www.psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/a-bad-result.html.

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