The US state of California has shelved plans to introduce physician-assisted suicide after legislators conceded they could not gain sufficient votes to progress their Bill.
The failure of the Bill, SB128, has been welcomed by opponents of assisted suicide in California, which includes doctors and palliative care professionals as well as Catholic groups and disability rights groups.
Among opponents was the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, whose spokesperson, Andrew Rivas, said of assisted suicide: “Once we establish in law that some lives are not as valuable as others, not worth ‘paying for’, there will be no turning back. The logic of doctor-assisted suicide does not stop with the terminally ill.”
As part of the campaign against SB128, the archdiocese had issued letters to all Californian legislators, urging them to oppose the bill.
However, while welcoming the outcome at this point, Rivas warned that the battle against SB128 is not finished.
“It was pulled so that it wouldn’t lose,” he said of recent developments. “It will be back in January.”
Though physician-assisted suicide has been introduced in three states – Washington, Oregon and Vermont – it has been struck down in a number of others in 2015, including Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Delaware and Nevada. The states of New York and New Jersey are currently engaged in debates on the issue.
