California seniors group file papers to challenge assisted suicide law on the 2016 ballot.

By Alex Schadenberg
International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A California group called Seniors Against Suicide, who opposed the California assisted suicide bill that was signed into law by Governor Brown on October 5, filed papers with the California Attorney General's office to put the issue of assisted suicide on the State ballot in 2016, as reported by the Associated Press.

According to the LA Times, a letter from clinical psychologist, Dr Mark Hoffman stated:

“Illness is never a reason for ending a life,” 

He said that he is:

"working with other opponents of medically killing depressed and ill patients."

According to California law, opponents of legislation have 90 days (January 3, 2016) to collect 365,880 signatures to place the issue on the 2016 ballot. 

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) supports all legal measures that will protect people from euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Ezekiel Emmanuel

Meanwhile, the Tyler Morning Telegraph reported that the California assisted suicide law will be abused. The article quoted Dr Ezekiel Emmanuel, a long time advisor to President Obama, who studied the experience with legalized assisted death in the Netherlands and found widespread abuse. According to Dr Emmanuel:

“The Netherlands studies fail to demonstrate that permitting physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia will not lead to the non-voluntary euthanasia of children, the demented, the mentally ill, the old, and others,” he wrote for The Atlantic. “Indeed, the persistence of abuse and the violation of safeguards, despite publicity and condemnation, suggest that the feared consequences of legalization are exactly its inherent consequences.”

Legalizing assisted suicide authorizes physicians to prescribe a lethal dose to patients who are at the lowest time of their life.