Assisted suicide bill approved

Assisted-suicide bill approved by California Assembly.

On World Suicide Prevention Day, the California Assembly approved a state assisted-suicide bill, which is expected to pass the California Senate. If passed, California would become the fifth state to legalize assisted suicide, joining Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana.

The Bill cleared one of its last major hurdles in the Assembly on Wednesday, with members voting 42 to 33 to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients who request it. It is expected to be heard by the full Senate on Friday.

The issue gained new impetus in the most populous U.S. state last year after a 29-year-old brain cancer patient, Brittany Maynard, moved from California to Oregon to take advantage of that state's Death with Dignity Act and was featured on the cover of People magazine.

Brittany Maynard, right-to-die advocate, ends her life

A measure introduced after Maynard's death won the support of the state Senate in June, but died in the Assembly's Health Committee, amid opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, disability rights advocates and others.

Under the bill, two doctors would have to determine that a patient had no more than six months to live before the medication could be prescribed. It also would require a patient seeking life-ending drugs to be mentally competent and to present two separate requests to an attending physician and for two witnesses to attest to the patient's wish to die.

The bill makes it a felony to coerce, trick or force someone into taking the medication.

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