Calif. Assisted Suicide Bill Dies of Natural Causes

Excerpts from “Calif. Assisted Suicide Bill Dies of Natural Causes”
A news article in the 6/11/07 Christian Post by Doug Huntington

[Sacramento] – A bill that could have legalized assisted suicide in California had a silent death this past Thursday after the bill’s major supporter shelved it, realizing it would not have enough Democratic votes to pass out of the Assembly.

Several pro-life groups have been celebrating the halt to Assembly Bill 374 (A.B. 374), which would have allowed physicians to euthanize terminally ill patients with less than six months to live.

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Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) had been pushing for A.B. 374, which had been modeled after Oregon’s current assisted suicide bill, for four months before the last-minute pull out. Oregon is currently the only state that allows the practice, which gives a legal dose of medication to patients who wish to go through the procedure.

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After informal polling by the two co-authors of the bill, Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) and Patty Berg (D-Eureka), evidence showed that the bill lacked 41 of the 48 Democratic votes. Most of the assemblymen felt uncomfortable supporting a bill that could cost them California votes in the future. The bill was shelved until 2008 to protect these representatives until it could gain more support.

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Read the entire news article here:
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070611/27914_Assisted_Suicide_Bill_Dies_of_Natural_Causes.htm