Berg praises Supreme Court decision
January 18, 2006
Sara Watson Arthurs
Eureka Times Standard
North Coast Assemblywoman Patty Berg said she was “elated” by the Supreme Court decision upholding Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law.
Berg, D-Eureka, and Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, held a telephone press conference Tuesday morning to talk about the decision's ramifications in California. The two legislators are authors of a proposed bill that would make it possible for terminally ill Californians to request a prescription for medication to end their lives.
”The regulation of medical practice has long been the job of individual states, and today's ruling keeps that job for the states,” Berg said.
Levine said the ruling may make it easier to pass legislation in California. He said several legislators have said they were waiting to hear the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling. Levine said he and Berg are close to having enough votes to pass the legislation.
”It doesn't solve all of our problems, but it certainly helps,” Berg said. “We still have some convincing to do.”
Levine said the bill will head to the Senate Judiciary Committee in March and will likely be heard by the full Senate in May. The bill passed Assembly committees, but Berg and Levine moved it to the Senate before its consideration by the full Assembly. They introduced the bill in February 2005.
Barbara Coombs Lee, co-president of bill sponsor Compassion in Choices, said the Vermont Legislature is considering legislation similar to the Berg-Levine bill. Both are modeled closely after the Oregon law, which was approved by that state's voters in 1997.
Berg said the safeguards in her bill are stronger than those in Oregon. People wanting to end their lives through the law would have to undergo a psychological evaluation and be advised, in writing, of the alternatives available, including hospice care.
She cited polls showing that Californians support the legislation. In the time since the bill was put on hold last year, “we have been building major grass-roots support,” Berg said.
Coombs Lee said she thinks it's unlikely that Congress will attempt to pass federal legislation on the subject any time soon.
Berg said that the decision affirmed that “the way we die is not the government's business, and you cannot manipulate government to impose your belief on others.”
Nico van Aelstyn, attorney representing Compassion in Choices,added that the court rejected, in what amounted to a “scolding,” former Attorney General John Ashcroft's attempt to claim authority over the matter. If the court had ruled otherwise, “the attorney general's power to criminalize would be unrestrained,” van Aelstyn said, quoting the court's opinion.
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