Terminally Ill Adults, Doctor File Notice of Appeal of Ruling Voiding California Medical Aid-in-Dying Law
Matt FairchildTwo terminally adults and a physician in California
today filed a notice of
appeal of
a lower court’s decisions in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the California End of Life
Option Act.
The decisions include the rejection on Wednesday of a motion filed
by a
physician and two terminally ill adults urging the judge to “vacate” (i.e.,
cancel) his judgment last week invalidating the law.
The group
requests state Attorney General Xavier Becerra to take a position on Compassion
& Choices’ legal opinion that its notice of appeal with the 4th District
Circuit of Appeal triggers an automatic stay of Riverside County Superior Court
Judge Daniel Ottolia’s judgment. A stay would reinstate the law pending further
court rulings.
Similar to laws
in six other states and Washington, D.C., the California law gives mentally
capable, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live the option to
request prescription medication they can decide to take to end unbearable
suffering and die peacefully in their sleep.
“We are besieged
with calls from anxious,
confused, terminally ill Californians, doctors and health care providers about the
status of the law,” said Kevin Díaz, national director of legal advocacy for
Compassion & Choices, whose sister organization, Compassion & Choices
Action Network, led the campaign to pass the End of Life Option Act. “It is
becoming increasingly obvious that doctors and patients ...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs
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