Constitutional Law

Calif. Approves End-of-Life Patients' Rights Bill

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a measure into law on Sept. 30 requiring physicians who diagnose people with terminal illnesses to promptly inform them about the right to refuse or be withdrawn from life-sustaining treatment. The bill, AB 2747, will also require health care providers who do not want to comply with a patient’s end-of-life decisions to transfer the patient to another provider. Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit advocacy group that pushed for the measures’ passage, lauded it as the nation’s first law “to provide terminally ill patients with a full disclosure of, and counseling about, all available legal and ethical end-of-life care options.” Earlier this year, ACS released an Issue Brief by Kathryn L. Tucker, legal affairs director of Compassion & Choices, examining Oregon’s experience under that state’s law allowing terminally ill patients access to legal assistance in dying. That brief, “Choice at the End of Life: Lessons from Oregon,” is available here.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on October 01, 2008 (boomark / email).