Assisted suicide is legal in only four states currently, but several other jurisdictions are considering legislation on the practice. A California bill resembles the Oregon law approved by voters there in 1994, but it has some significant differences. The California proposal does not include a conscience clause that allows doctors to refuse to participate in assisted suicide. The Oregon law also mandates referral for psychological counseling if either of two doctors examining the dying patient suspects the patient is mentally ill or suffers from impaired judgment. That stipulation is not included in the California proposal. In New York, where a bill patterned after Oregon’s assisted-suicide law has also been introduced, the Disability Rights Legal Center filed a suit on Feb. 4 to give New Yorkers the right to end their lives. Assisted suicide bills were also recently introduced in Maryland, Wyoming and Pennsylvania.
Assisted Suicide Gains
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Pope Francis prayed that the Jubilee Year may become “a season of hope” and reconciliation in a world at war and suffering humanitarian crises as he opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve.
‘If God can visit us, even when our hearts seem like a lowly manger, we can truly say: Hope is not dead; hope is alive and it embraces our lives forever!’
Inspired by his friend and mentor Henri Nouwen, Metropolitan Borys Gudziak, leader of Ukrainian Catholics in the U.S., invites listeners in his Christmas Eve homily to approach the manger with renewed awe and openness.
A Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, by Father Terrance Klein