Friday, July 13, 2018

Your help is needed to stop assisted suicide in California.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The California assisted suicide law is being successfully challenged through the courts and the outcome may depend on you.

Life Legal Defense Foundation is successfully arguing that the California assisted suicide law is unconstitutional, but they are being challenged by the assisted suicide lobby and California Attorney General (AG), Xavier Becerra. Life Legal Defense Foundation needs your financial support to prevent this case from turning into a David and Goliath story.

On May 15, 2018 Judge Daniel Ottolia declared that the California assisted suicide law was unconstitutional when it enacted the assisted suicide law during a special session dedicated to health care funding. Life Legal Defense stated in their media release:
Judge Ottolia found that the End of Life Option Act “does not fall within the scope of access to healthcare services” and “is not a matter of healthcare funding.” Moreover, the court ruled that, “The legislation decriminalizing assisted suicide cannot be deemed a matter incidental to the purpose of the emergency session.”
The California AG appealed the decision to the 4th District Court of Appeal, who upheld the decision of Judge Ottolia and since the court of appeal refused to stay the decision assisted suicide was once again prohibited in California.

The California AG then went back to the 4th District Court of Appeal to request a stay of the decision and on June 15, the court of appeal granted a stay of the decision, once again permitting assisted suicide in California.

Alexandra Snyder
The most recent article, published in Valley News, explains that the fate of the California assisted suicide law will be decided by the appellate court later this summer. The Valley News article states:
Life Legal Defense Foundation Executive Director Alexandra Snyder said her organization remains dedicated to seeing the law permanently invalidated to protect “citizens from being ‘helped’ to commit suicide.” 
The foundation has underscored in literature what it describes as troubling aspects of the law, including that a “family member can initiate the request for assisted suicide ... not the person seeking suicide;” “an interested ‘witness’ – someone who will benefit financially from the person’s death – can sign off on the suicide drug request” and “any doctor or osteopath can write the prescription” without a history of interaction with the patient.
The reality is that Life Legal Defense has proven that the California assisted suicide law is unconstitutional but they are facing mammoth opponents who have infinite resources to promote assisted suicide in California. 

Life Legal Defense Foundation needs your financial support to ensure that the lives of Californians are protected from assisted suicide.

According to the assisted suicide lobby 504 people have died by assisted suicide in California since June 2016.

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