California bill may extend assisted suicide to euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

There are currently three states, in 2025, that have bills to expand their assisted suicide laws (Vermont, Oregon and Washington State).

Senator Blakespear, who last year sponsored Senate Bill 1196, a bill that would have expanded the California assisted suicide law to include euthanasia and removed the terminal illness requirement from the law, indicated that she will be sponsoring Bill SB 403, a bill to expand California's assisted suicide law.

Thaddeus Pope

The text of SB 403 has not been released but on February 18, euthanasia and assisted suicide activist and academic, Thaddeus Pope, published on his Medical Futility Blog that:

California is again looking to amend its 2015 End of Life Option Act. S.B. 403 will likely call for a study committee to examine several amendments:

1. Permitting IV self-administration of medications - because it is significantly safer and more effective than ingestion of medications,
2. Permitting APRNs to prescribe - because this has improved access with no risk to safety in other states (NM HI WA CO),
3. Eliminating the 6-month terminal illness requirement - because it is arbitrary and excludes patients with serious irreversible illnesses who want to avoid intolerable suffering,
4. Eliminating the sunset clause - because the EOLOA expires in 2031,
5. Eliminating the residency requirement - because it is unconstitutional and patients are coming to California for MAID anyway,
6. Other amendments.

SB 403 is very similar to last year's SB 1196. Since the language of the bill is not released I can only comment on the concepts related to the changes.

 

1. Permitting IV self-administration will allow for euthanasia, which is homicide. Euthanasia is done in Canada by IV administration. Since there is no oversight in California's assisted suicide law, meaning, the doctor who assists the death is also the person who reports the death (no third party involvement) therefore allowing IV self-administration cannot be distinguished from IV administration. Therefore permitting IV self-administration in fact will also allow euthanasia (homicide).

2. Permitting non-doctors to assist suicide by prescribing lethal poison is based on the lack of doctors who are willing to assist the suicides of their patients. More people who are permitted to kill leads to more killing.

3. Replacing the 6 month terminal illness requirement with a definition of serious irreversible illnesses who want to avoid intolerable suffering eliminates the terminal illness requirement. 

 

Eliminating the terminal illness requirement leads to people with disabilities "qualifying" for death by lethal poison for reasons of poverty, homelessness, an inability to obtain necessary services or medical treatment as has happened in Canada. The Ontario Coroner's MAiD death review committee report indicated that some euthanasia deaths are driven by homelessness, fear and isolation (Article Link).

4. Eliminating the residency requirement allows for suicide tourism. Pope states that the residency requirement is unconstitutional. In September 2024 a New Jersey court disagreed with Pope. Further to that, Pope admits that non-residents are already dying by assisted suicide in California. Breaking the law is not a reason to change the law.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will expose SB 403 and this article will be updated when the language of the bill is officially released.