Supporters of California’s physician-assisted suicide law put the state and other parties on notice Friday that they will be appealing a Riverside County Superior Court judge’s decision to invalidate the law, and they asked the California Attorney General’s Office to issue a legal opinion regarding if the law remains in force while the appeals process unfolds.
Two patients and a doctor have joined in an appeal of Judge Daniel Ottolia’s decision to overturn the End of Life Option Act.
Last week, Ottolia affirmed his May 15 declaration that the act violated the state constitution, and on Wednesday, he rejected a request by supporters of the law to provisionally suspend his order pending further action at the appellate level.
Matthew Fairchild, 48, of Burbank, Joan Nelson, 82, of Marin, and UC San Francisco clinical researcher Dr. Catherine Forest are plaintiffs in the appeal. Both Fairchild and Nelson are terminally ill with cancer, while Forest is a physician facilitator for people utilizing the End of Life Option Act, according to Denver-based Compassion & Choices, whose staff advocated for the law.
The California Attorney General’s Office sought a summary ruling from the Fourth District Court of Appeal to bar Ottolia’s order invalidating the act from taking effect, but the court declined to grant state prosecutors’ request.
According to Compassion & Choices, the appellants now want Attorney General Xavier Becerra to take an unequivocal position as to whether the End of Life Option Act can remain accessible to those individuals who wish to exercise it while the appeals process plays out.
“There is legal precedent that when you file an appeal with the appellate court of a lower court judgment, it automatically triggers a stay suspending the judgment to maintain the status quo,” Compassion & Choices attorney John Kappos said.
The group’s legal affairs director, Kevin Diaz, said the organization has been “besieged with calls from … terminally ill Californians” concerned about the status of the law.
“It is becoming increasingly obvious that doctors and patients need this clarity from the attorney general or the courts,” Diaz said. “Otherwise, doctors will not feel comfortable advising patients about medical aid in dying or writing a prescription.”
The lawsuit challenging the validity of the End of Life Option Act was brought by six people, along with the Bristol, Tennessee-based American Academy of Medical Ethics, with legal backing by the Napa-based Life Legal Defense Foundation. At least one of the six individuals resides in the Riverside area, where legal proceedings were initiated within a few weeks of the Legislature’s approval of the law in June 2016.
“Life Legal has always maintained that the `End of Life Act’ violates the constitution and California’s long-standing public policy of protecting its citizens from being `helped’ to commit suicide,” Life Legal Defense Foundation Executive Director Alexandra Snyder said last week.
Ottolia ruled that the act failed to pass constitutional muster because it was passed during a special session of the Legislature convened by the governor to address Medicare funding shortfalls. The judge said that the End of Life Option Act did not “fall within the scope of access to healthcare services” and was “not a matter of healthcare funding.”
“The legislation decriminalizing assisted suicide cannot be deemed a matter incidental to the purpose of the emergency (legislative) session,” Ottolia said in his final order last week.
Opponents originally filed suit on the grounds that the act was at odds with civil rights protections in place under state and federal law. Former U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson of Riverside, who went into private practice in 2009, was one of the legal heavies hired to represent the opposition.
According to Compassion & Choices, since the act took effect, 504 Californians have utilized it. Supporters say it empowers terminally ill patients, who still have the capacity to govern their lives, to elect for themselves how they wish to die.
So-called “aid-in-dying” laws are on the books in Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, Montana, Washington, D.C. and Washington state, according to Compassion & Choices.
Under the End of Life Option Act, a patient must be at least 18 years old and reside in California, suffering from an incurable and irreversible illness with a prognosis of six months or less to live, to qualify to proceed with physician-assisted suicide.
A California board-certified doctor is required to assess the patient’s mental status and condition before the California Department of Public Health will approve use of the option.
The agency requires the submission of forms authenticating the patient’s decision.
If approval is granted, the patient is permitted to self-administer lethal drugs.