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http://news.yahoo.com/california-lawmakers-approve-die-legislation-193816152.html

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The state Assembly approved legislation Wednesday that would allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives after an emotional and deeply personal debate, sending the proposal to the Senate that is expected to endorse it.

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It was the second effort by California lawmakers this year to allow doctors to prescribe life-ending medication following the highly publicized case of 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, a California woman with brain cancer who moved to Oregon to legally take her life.

Maynard's husband and mother have taken on the cause since her death and were in the Assembly for Wednesday's debate. Lawmakers from both parties invoked their religious faith in arguing for and against the legislation before voting 42-33 in its favor.

"I, as a Christian, do not pretend to know what God has in mind for all of us, why there is pain or suffering in this world. But I do know he is a merciful God. And we have the ability to allow others to have a choice," said Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-Pleasanton, who supported the measure. "I believe it is cruel — nothing short of cruel — to deny them that choice in their final hours and final days."

Assembly members were seen as the stumbling block to advancing the bill; the previous version had passed the Senate. Baker, who would have represented Maynard had she stayed in California, was among several GOP lawmakers who supported the bill after previously expressing reservations.

In response to those concerns, several changes were made to boost patient protections, including requirements that the patient be physically capable of taking the medication themselves, that two doctors approve it, that the patient submit several written requests, and that there be two witnesses.

View galleryAssemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, wipes her …
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, wipes her eyes as she talks with Assemblyman Rudy Salas, …
The earlier measure stalled amid religious opposition and hesitant Democrats. The renewed push comes after at least two dozen states have introduced aid-in-dying legislation this year, though none of the bills has passed.

The right-to-die movement has been galvanized by the high-profile case of Maynard, who argued in widely viewed online videos that she should have been able to access life-ending drugs in her home state. Doctors are permitted to prescribe life-ending drugs in Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana.

Maynard's mother, Debbie Ziegler, said after the vote that her daughter had left her with a powerful mandate to effect change in California.

"At one time she called me into her room and said, 'This is what I will leave, instead of a child. I'm leaving this, and I want you to speak up for me,' " Ziegler said.

It's not clear where Gov. Jerry Brown, a lifelong Catholic and former Jesuit seminarian, stands on the issue.

View galleryAssemblywoman Marie Waldron, R-Escondido, and James …
Assemblywoman Marie Waldron, R-Escondido, and James Gallagher, R-Nicolaus, watch as the votes are po …
Religious groups and advocates for people with disabilities have opposed aid-in-dying legislation, saying it goes against the will of God and puts terminally ill patients at risk for coerced death.

Lawmakers shared deeply personal stories of caring for terminally ill family members and of incredible recoveries. Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson, questioned the bill's time frame, which requires a doctor to give a diagnosis of six months or less to live.

"I have seen so many miraculous turnarounds in people's lives when the doctors have given up. The doctors have said, 'Do funeral arrangements,' and the prognosis has changed within a matter of hours," said Gipson, who opposed the bill.

The measure was introduced as part of a special legislative session on health care financing convened by the Democratic governor. Brown has declined to take a position on right-to-die legislation, although his spokeswoman said earlier this year that he did not believe the session was the appropriate venue to consider it.

Several Republican lawmakers tried to block Wednesday's Assembly vote on procedural grounds, arguing it was not the right forum for the debate.

View galleryAssemblywoman Catherine Baker, R-Dublin, urged lawmakers …
Assemblywoman Catherine Baker, R-Dublin, urged lawmakers to approve a right-to-die measure Diaz supp …
If the effort failed in the Legislature, right-to-die advocacy group Compassion and Choices has said it would attempt to qualify for a 2016 ballot measure.

The California Medical Association earlier this year dropped its longstanding opposition to aid-in-dying legislation, taking a neutral stance.

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The bill is ABX2-15.

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Associated Press writer Judy Lin also contributed to this report.

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well, if my wife ever cuts my genitals off, i know where to move to.

I have always thought people should have the right to make their own decisions on this matter. I am a Christian but don't believe I have the right to interfere or impose my choice or belief upon anyone else. I'm not the one suffering. It's not my choice, or the laws for that matter to decide for anyone.

there's a lot of sad stories in the comment section. people who are terminally ill and such.

after reading some of it, i'm glad this got passed.

Ahh the expansion of the Culture of Death.

We kill our unwanted children for convenience.
We kill our sick when we have the Medical tech to make them comfortable.
Soon we will kill the useless.
Then perhaps the unproductive elderly.

Lives don't matter 'tall.

So you are against people who are adults and terminally ill from making their own decisions? You wish to force what you believe upon them?

You still don't get it. It's not about what I would want.

so then what does it matter?

Yet your viewpoint is incredibly selfish.

How do you figure?

You're stating you don't believe other people should be allowed to end their own suffering, as if it has anything to do with you.

No, I am a Christian and when it comes to my opinion on matters of life and death, good and evil, I have to answer to a higher authority in what I promote.
The decisions other people make are their own.

I see this issue as another wet sneaker on the slippery slope
of the culture of death we have developed.

Great news California is recognizing that we should at least be as humane with ourselves as we are with our pets.

Now, my suspicious side has to ask, what tax is California thinking of regulating on this action?

So you want to have the government tell terminally ill people that they're not free to decide what to do with their lives, and you want the government to tell people what sex acts they are and are not to perform on willing partners? Should I start calling you "Comrade"?

But you've literally been arguing this statement the entire time you've been on the forums.

Perhaps I should give you my opinion once and be done with it.

In the end, we all choose what we are gonna do for ourselves anyway. I try to give you a different view, for your consideration.

When I was a young man we lived in a Culture of Life where all our lives were precious. My Great Grandmother and the other woman of her time had something like 14 kids and half of them died by the age of 5.

We grew up with an appreciation for life and knew how fleeting it could be.

Today after many years of this Culture of Death we live in, I watch young people marching in the streets, desperation in their faces, begging, yes begging for people to acknowledge that their lives matter!

What the hell is Society doing to itself?

If somebody wants to die at any age, in any health condition, they should be able to do so with dignity. I don't think somebody upset about something should just be able to go into a clinic and be put to death either. I think after an exhaustive counseling regiment and thorough investigation of ones mental status (not being insane or incompetent), if they still want to die then we should allow them and give them the same or better dignified means that we would to an old or ill pet.

Someone dwelling on death long enough will commit or attempt suicide. If they are sane and have explored other options and still want to die, I say we should let them without forcing them to commit a messy or botched suicide attempt on their own. There should be no shame in it. It's a decision like every other.

I don't know why you need a law. It's easy enough to buy sleeping pills and lace them with whatever poison you want. You can't stop a person from killing themselves. However this idea that there is dignity in death by suicide is kind of stupid to me. There is no dignity in dying like a coward afraid to face your fate. There is no dignity in dying a slow horrible death either. Death is just an ugly end to life that we all have to deal with. I'm happy that I stopped my mother from committing suicide so many times. She got to know her grandkids and lived an extra 20 years of life that doctors said she would not live to see.

What if it was Iran wanting the right to die?

Is god ok with it if it's people you hate?

If a person cannot leave their hospital bed then it's unlikely they'd be able to get sleeping pills without someone's assistance.

Sometimes it's a person's condition of existing with constant physical misery and the realization that the kids and grand-kids they love so much are living their lives in consuming grief.

It's the physical misery and the love for their family that helps them to find the final courage to face death squarely.

They're willing to die to protect their families interests in the way a soldier is willing to die to protect their country's interests.

The only difference is the benefit of stopping the physical and emotional pain that makes their lives a burden to live.

I don't see it as a slippery slope to a culture of death. Maybe it's an ascension into their Heaven due to hearing their God's voice calling them home.

Why would anyone want to interfere with another person's religious beliefs?

I have no problem with allowing someone who is terminally ill to have all of the pain medication they want ...... and I have no problem having an artificial feeding tube removed from a brain dead patient, who has no hope of recovery, thus allowing them to die naturally ...... but I just cannot accept it as Christian to allow someone to commit suicide. I do not believe that is in God's plan. (and I say this as someone who lives with constant, debilitating pain)

Are you saying you wouldn't accept yourself, your family or Christian friends to end their terminal pain through assisted death or are you saying you would vote against allowing anyone to do that?

Is it possible you would decline voting on the issue?

I hope all those people that complain about overpopulation are lining up.

How about the ones complaining that the world and our culture is in shambles?

If they are the ones trying to fix it, no. If all they do is complain, then I'll leave it up to the individual.

I am saying that I would not do so for myself, and would probably vote against such a measure. While I can understand that people don't want to suffer, it happens sometimes. How unfortunately, some people do suffer as the result of a terminal illness, and that can, in most cases, a least. be made comfortable.

I also have to include my own experience into such a question. I have extreme pain in my back, and have neuropathy in my feet and legs. I cannot sleep through the night because of it, and often get only an hour or 2 sleep at a time. (if I'm lucky) I have had to leave a job I absolutely loved, and will probably never be able to return to as a result.

However, as those doors closed, others have opened. In a rather odd turn of events, my faith in God has been rekindled, and is more on fire than at any time in my life prior to today. I have found opportunities in my church that never would have presented themselves if I had not been "pushed" in this direction by my physical condition. While I wish that God had used a different method of helping me change paths, the one he chose has worked extremely well. I have been forever changed from the man I was, to the man I am today. I find myself much more able, and happy to speak of my faith than I ever was before. I have changed my outlook as to the world, and my place in it. I have a different, more Biblical view on sin. I would not have come to this point without the things I went through. I was convinced that I knew what God wanted, as far as the Bible, while rarely reading it. I was extremely arrogant in that regard. I knew just enough verses to be really dangerous to myself, and others.

I now have found the time to read and study my Bible every day. I have been able to do some things for my church, and there are additional opportunities there. Maybe I'll even find a way to remove myself from my current state. I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if I had not come back to the Lord while all of this has been going on in my life. I hate to think about it.

Suppose I were 20 or 30 years older. Maybe someone might have said "Oh Ytown, we hate to see you suffering like that. Have you considered ending it all? There are many painless ways, where you just drift off to sleep forever. Wouldn't that be nice?"

I shudder to think of me failing to come back to Christ, and at the same time have taken such a course of action.

I believe that God uses a lot of different events and situations for His own purposes. Maybe a 90 year old Christian shows his grandchildren and great grandchildren the glory God has for us, even in the midst of pain and suffering. Maybe in the final 5 minutes of life he brings one of his offspring to Christ. Maybe he, himself, comes to Christ just before the end. Heck, maybe, at the very end, a father and son finally make a reconnection, and forgive one another, and give one another a peace that had escaped them for decades. There are many reasons for a person to not kill him/herself. Who knows? I would bet that when that man enters the afterlife, he will be happy he had those last few seconds of life.

I also firmly believe that where there is life there is hope. Ending my life in such a manner would be admitting that the world had beat every ounce of hope and faith out of me. I refuse to do such a thing. I would hope that others would as well. I also wonder this .... what if your relative was in pain .... but not going to die any time soon. They asked you for the means to end their life, and you brought it to them. Your relative kills himself, and 2 minutes later the doctor bursts in and says "Great news! The insurance company approved a treatment that has just been approved by the FDA, and this treatment should eliminate over 75% of your pain! ..... only to see that you had helped your loved one end their life.

There is Hospice care for those who are terminally ill, and in a great deal of pain. Do we need more than that?

Also, where do you draw the line? What if a 30 year old man is paralyzed from the neck down, and decides that he does not want to live with that suffering? Should we allow him to kill himself? If not, then why not? Isn't his emotional suffering as real, and as painful as another person's physical suffering? Who decides?

I can't tell you how many people I have seen give up smoking by seeing the death of a loved one who smoked.

I can't tell you how many people I have seen come to the Lord
while on their death bed.

Every second of life has the potential to have dramatic and lasting effects on your own life and the lives of others.

I stand for Life! I vote for Life!

I wish I had a clear-cut opinion about this one. I really do. It would make life so much- simpler.

This past July, I was helping my Pops-In-Law out of his chair. 'Big G' is 90. His wife, 'Miss Nancy' is 91. He's in 24/7 pain from ailments in his back and hips- ailments that surgeons won't operate on because of his advanced age. They fear him dying on the table during the procedure. His wife is leaving us a little more every day. We're losing her to dementia, and she's now a shadow of the strong, feisty, opinionated woman she once was.

As he got to his feet, he straightened himself, turned to look at the woman who has been the center of his soul for over 60 years, and said:

"It's ridiculous for a person to live this long. What a cruel f*ing joke."

Broke my heart, 40. Here's this guy who used to be the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree- the sharpest wit in the room... so racked with pain and shame from being "useless to my wife or anyone else," that he now prays for an end to his own existence.

When he returned from the bathroom, I tried talking to him. "G- don't you know how much we love you? Don't you know how much it's gonna hurt when you are gone? We want you with us for as long as you can be here. Miss Nance, too. You guys are treasures to us. Don't you know that?" Here's what he said:

"Listen to yourself. What YOU want. Who's YOUR treasure. Everything you said was all about YOU. What about what WE want? You think I want to be here, popping 20 pills a day just to be able to walk around my house? You think she's happy- wearing diapers like she's a two year old? Where's the dignity in THAT? "F" what you want. This is no way to live. No way at all."

BOOM.

Dawg, I've always prided myself on having a pretty decent vocabulary and the wits necessary to have the right words for any situation, but that day... I had nothing. No answers. No words that could console this once proud, vital human being. I just sat there with a closed mouth and wet cheeks. Useless.

___________________

On one hand, I'm on board with the sanctity and preciousness of Life... I really am. On the other, it really does seem like a 'cruel joke' for medical science to prolong a life into situations like these: wracked with constant pain, brain addled to an almost vegetative state, quality of life in ruins.

The very first tenet of the doctor's Hippocratic Oath is: "First, do no harm."

At what point does the doctor cross that line when administering to the elderly or the terminally afflicted?
When does the artificial extension of Life stop being heroic, and starts being torture?
Just because we can do a thing.... does that mean we must?
What wisdom or answers does Our Father Who Art In Heaven have for us in dealing with such issues?

I confess I don't have the answers to these questions. Perhaps you can help me... since you seem so certain about it.


?

And once again your vote would be to deny others in what they believe because what you believe.

How can you allow yourself to interfere into someone else's beliefs?

This is why even the idea that Christianity is under attack is totally implausible. When Christians act to force society to accept their doctrine then it's Christians who are on the attack.

Not being able to force your beliefs does not mean you're under attack.

In the issue of assisted suicide the condition of your life is totally unaffected except for your beliefs. Your beliefs aren't even affected.

You're still free to believe what you want, except for the part where you believe others should not have the right to act on their beliefs and that you should be an active agent in preventing others from exercising the freedom of following their beliefs.

You are the attacker.

Sadly beautiful story Clem.

An excellent observation about how medical science has created an unnatural prolonging of life, or as some may view, a life beyond God's intention.

Thanks, Rock. I've really been wrestling with this one. 5 years ago, I was soooo certain about my beliefs on this subject. Now, I truly am conflicted.

This one hurts. Really badly.

That is a very touching and sorrowful situation Clem. I have a 104 year old Grandmother who wonders why she has lived so long.

If only I had all the answers.

My Gram says God will come for her when He's ready, she must still have something He needs her to do.

I look at your situation and read your post in sadness when it
dawns on me they had an effect on you with this incident, now didn't they? Only the living can effect our thoughts and attitudes like this. Love is alive. Wouldn't it be amazing to die and stand before our Lord only to find out that their, or our, last little statement, our last small movement, our last glance while alive was the greatest thing that ever happened in someone else's life. That it directly effected their entire future which effected the future of countless generations?

In God's plan for our lives I sometimes wonder if our suffering in the end goes a long way to righting a wrong we may have done in our lifetime that would hold us back from something we do not understand in the workings of Heaven.

We are saved through Christ but maybe, just maybe there is a golden ring on the merry-go-round ride in downtown Heaven available for us through that suffering?

We are comparing our puny human lives to the Mind and Glory of a Living God. My bet is we understand little.

You know 40, actually our personal beliefs on this subject are very similar to a point. I believe it would be wrong of me to make such a decision. It's simply not a part of my belief system to end my life that way.

Yet at the very same time, I do not believe it's the right of laws or man to subject others to that same belief system. I think that's really the only point at which we disagree.

Then allow me to suggest something else for your consideration...

If a person really needs a Doctor to put them down like a dog, they really haven't put much thought into ending things, now have they?

One more consideration...

Once Suicide by Doctor becomes accepted by all and is the law of the land, how long before someone says, "Gee, for a guy like you who only has six months to live, it is very expensive to keep you alive and such a burden on your family and a burden on our Healthcare costs, don't you think it is your duty to die, now?"
"Why do you wish to force your beliefs on others? Why are you
so selfish?"

I would say that they probably have to get to that point. I believe if someone knows they are going to die from a terminally ill diagnosis, that they have suffered pain long enough to weigh their decision.

While you and I may not agree with that decision, who are we to inflict what we believe upon them?

I'm not really trying to debate the topic with you nor change your mind. I'm simply sharing my belief on the subject with you.

My mom, while she didn't have an assisted death, chose not to undergo kidney dialysis to keep her alive. She had fought with diabetes, heart disease and general terrible health for years.

My brothers and sisters begged me to talk with her to change her mind. I did talk with her and informed her of just how long her life could be prolonged through dialysis. She answered this way, "Son, I've had a blessed life by having my wonderful children. They are all grown and on their own now. I've fought my health issues for so long now, I'm just tired. I know you may not like my decision, but it's mine to make."

With that, I didn't argue with her or carry on about it any longer.

That is probably a big part of the decision to die for many. I'm sure there are many people who do not wish to lose everything they've worked for in life to go the medical field. They know they're dying anyway and would rather pass on their wealth than donate it to continue suffering to only die a short time later.

Just like I tried to force my beliefs on others that 4 more years of Obama was a bad thing for America. Just like I forced
my beliefs on others when I voted for a Republican House and Senate.
One man one vote is the way it works in a democracy. Why do so many of you force what I consider to be wrong on me?

It's a BS question and used by many of you.

I am sorry for your loss of your Mom. In my humble opinion she made the right decision. So many people undergo so many treatments to keep themselves alive at any cost and then end up suffering a final painful death. Sad.

I would think I would follow that same course if it was me. For me, when it is time to die and only machines can keep me alive, I'm not going to fight death or God taking me. Your Mom chose to die naturally over living unnaturally. Bless her.