A new bill that will allow doctors to assist terminally ill patients in assisted suicide will take place June 2016 in California. This marks the fifth state to follow Oregon’s landmark decision to allow this motion. The law requires strict stipulations and takes numerous other physicians to come in agreement that the patient is terminally ill, of the legal age of 18, in chronic pain, and has less than six months of projected life expectancy. The patient must also be physically and mentally capable of self-administering the drug, which is a lethal dose of secobarbital. The drug allows the patient to fall asleep, typically with his/her family members gathered around. The request in assistance for death must be expressed by the patient, and the process for several mental health experts to determine the patient is consciously aware of their decision takes a lengthy amount of time.

What is Self-Assisted Suicide?

According to the Medical Dictionary, Self-Assisted Suicide is the voluntary termination of one's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician. The ballot was first put up for discussion in November of 1994 in Oregon, and was passed with a voting rank of 51% for and 49% opposed. The bill is controversial as it suggests the government has more power over the patients life rather the individual himself. Many assume that health care providers will use this bill to persuade patients into ending their life. However the medical community believes the law will result in a large number of physicians prescribing the medication.

Why Should This Be Discussed?

This bill is groundbreaking as it offers patients who are in unimaginable pain another option than to simply wait for death. It offers patients the choice to comfortably say goodbye to their loved ones and pass away peacefully in their own homes. It offers a sense of self- respect to many patients who have opted to be medically assisted in death. Matt Fairchild is terminally ill with melanoma in both his brain and his bones. He is in constant pain and on an incredible 26 different medications daily. In an interview with Kaiser Health News he stated he feels calmer knowing the law will become effective in just a few months. When it's time, he said, having a prescription will enable him to say goodbye to family and die in his sleep instead of suffering through intense pain, nausea, or seizures.

For more information on physician-assisted suicide, go to https://www.deathwithdignity.org/.