The Left Coast of Similar Mind on Assisted Suicide

In opposition to Bush administration policies that took center stage last year during Supreme Court case Gonzales v Oregon, California may be headed toward legalizing assisted suicide.

On March 28, California Assembly Bill 374, which would legalize assisted suicide for terminally ill people with 6 months or less to live, cleared the Assembly Judiciary Committee with a 7-3 vote. It is intended as a compassionate option for terminally ill people who are suffering. This bill, should it be enacted, would be the second in the nation legalizing assisted suicide following California's neighbor to the north, Oregon.

Californians across all ethnicities, faiths, political leanings, and age groups have been (usually overwhelmingly) in favor of assisted suicide for the past thirty years according to The Field Poll. The main barrier, it seems, to the passage of this bill, and to similar legislation that preceded it, is the forceful opposition of the Roman Catholic Church in California. The Church's opposition to assisted suicide falls under the pro-life umbrella of social policy that it supports, and it has poured its resources into defeating all assisted suicide legislation attempts for about fifteen years.

Holding true to this tradition, Cardinal Roger Mohoney, leader of the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdioceses - Los Angelos, has come out against AB 374 and specifically Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (a Catholic who has worshiped in Mohoney's church) for supporting it.

AB 374 is now in the Assembly Appropriations Committee awaiting a vote.