Assisted Suicide Law Ruled Unconstitutional

NAPA, Calif.,  Life Legal  — A California judge overturned the state’s assisted suicide law this morning, ruling that the legislature acted outside the scope of its authority when it enacted the End of Life Option Act.

The Act’s sponsors introduced the bill in a special session of the legislature convened by Governor Jerry Brown to address Medicaid funding shortfalls, services for the disabled, and in-home health support services.

Washington Post: "I’m dying of brain cancer. I prepared to end my life. Then I kept living."

To view the entire article, click here.

In April 2015, at the age of 55, I was diagnosed with one of the most lethal and aggressive brain tumors, a brainstem glioblastoma multiforme in an advanced stage. The prognosis was both grim and precise: Without treatment, I might have a few months; with treatment, I could last six months. If I beat overwhelming odds, I’d toast the new year one last time.

An 8-year-old was taken off life support, his organs donated. Now, Los Angeles police are investigating

Richard Winton and Harriet RyanContact Reporters

By the time Cole Hartman arrived at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, he was in grave condition. The 8-year-old had gone into cardiac arrest after nearly drowning in a washing machine at his Castaic home. Paramedics had gotten his heart beating again, but he remained in a coma and on a ventilator.

Physicians at UCLA's pediatric intensive care unit told Cole's family that the child was not brain-dead but would never recover normal neuro function and could never awaken, according to an entry in his medical chart.

The Hartmans decided to take Cole off life support and donate his organs. He was removed from the ventilator and, 23 minutes later with his family at his bedside, pronounced dead by an anesthesiologist.

The seemingly peaceful death four years ago is now the subject of an investigation by Los Angeles police and the district attorney's office. Homicide detectives are looking into an allegation by a coroner's investigator that the anesthesiologist gave Cole a fatal dose of the opioid fentanyl to hasten his death and increase the likelihood his organs could be harvested. No charges have been brought.

A lawyer for the anesthesiologist, Dr. Judith Brill, said the allegation was "factually wrong and patently offensive."

Brill's "only concern was to assure that this child, who had drowned and was never going to recover, would not suffer any pain following the removal of life support," attorney Mark Werksman wrote in an email to The Times.

A rare criminal investigation

The probe is one of only a handful of known criminal investigations into a doctor's role in an organ donation, and it offers a window into the ethical issues that can play out during a donor's last moments of life.

"As you can imagine, this is very complicated," said LAPD Capt. William Hayes, who oversees the elite Robbery-Homicide Division conducting the investigation. "We need to clearly understand what was done and the implications of those actions."

To read more, go here

"If Dr. Stevens had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead"

Jeanette Hall and her son, Scott, in November 2000

By Jeanette Hall

I live in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. Our law passed in 1997 by a ballot measure that I voted for.

In 2000, I was diagnosed with cancer and told that I had 6 months to a year to live.  I knew that our law had passed, but I didn’t know exactly how to go about doing it. I tried to ask my doctor, Kenneth Stevens MD, but he didn’t really answer me. In hindsight, he was stalling me.