By Clea Benson -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 2:15 am PST Monday, March 27, 2006
 A Republican lawmaker once described Democratic Assemblywoman Patty Berg as "the nicest person in the Legislature, bar none" - just before he voted against one of her bills.
Berg, 63, approaches her colleagues with a warm demeanor honed by years spent working as a social worker and as a leader of community organizations.
But that doesn't mean the Eureka lawmaker shrinks from a battle. And she is on the verge of facing a big one this year: With the U.S. Supreme Court clearing the way in January for states to make their own laws on the issue of assisted suicide, Berg is prepared to push a bill that would make California the first state after Oregon to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medications for the terminally ill.
Berg, who founded Planned Parenthood in her area many years ago, sees the issue as one of individual choice.
"A terminally ill person has the right to make that choice," she said. "It's an issue of privacy and, to me, it's an issue of dignity."
Berg and Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, wrote what they call the California Compassionate Choices Act, a measure that would allow doctors to prescribe lethal drugs upon the request of a patient who has been certified as terminally ill by two physicians.
While the Supreme Court decision was still pending last year, casting some uncertainty over state power to legislate on the issue, a similar effort by Berg and Levine died in the Assembly. Now, the language has been amended into Assembly Bill 651, and Berg and Levine are hoping the measure will be heard by a Senate committee in May.
Catholic groups, some advocates for the rights of the disabled and groups representing doctors strongly oppose the measure.
Californians Against Assisted Suicide, a coalition formed to oppose the bill, says it would potentially endanger people with disabilities who could be pressured into ending their own lives, and that it would run counter to doctors' roles as healers.
Berg was first elected to the Legislature in 2002. Eureka Democrats drafted her after she led a successful fight against a proposed Wal-Mart store as a community activist.
But it took some convincing to get her to enter the race. A widow for almost two decades, she had recently retired and was looking forward to spending time as a master gardener and visiting her grandchildren.
Not only that, but the 1st Assembly District is huge. If you were to drive north along the California coast from the wine country to the Oregon border - a seven-hour trip - you would be in Berg's district the whole way.
That alone presents some challenges.
"I sleep on my own pillow in my own home in my own bed an average of four nights out of 30," Berg said.
But she ran anyway, beating out three other Democrats. And from the beginning of her time in Sacramento, she said, she knew she wanted to introduce a bill like the Compassionate Choices Act. Decades spent working with the elderly had convinced her that people needed more options at the end of their lives. Her husband, a physician, had supported the concept before he died.
"He believed it was very much a private issue and that a physician's role was always to help patients and guide patients," she said.
For Berg, this is part of a lifetime of efforts aimed at easing the lives of aging and ill Californians. A director of the Area Agency on Aging in Humboldt and Del Norte counties for almost two decades, she chairs the Assembly's Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care.
She's also in the midst of pushing for a massive restructuring of state services to the elderly as the baby boom population ages. The number of Californians over 65 is expected to double in the next 15 years.
"It's going to be a generation that has different kinds of expectations than the current older generation," Berg said. "It's a generation that went through the Vietnam War and the civil rights and feminist movements. It's a generation that's going to have more demands, and they're going to want more choices."
Championing assisted suicide has thrust Berg into a controversial role. But despite her reputation for being nice, she's used to that, too, she says.
A lifelong practicing Roman Catholic, Berg recalled a recent meeting with her bishop, who came to tell her he felt she was creating a "scandal" by championing the legislation.
Berg said she has faced public censure from her church several times over the years for her positions on issues such as abortion and sex education. She sat down and talked to the bishop for almost two hours. She didn't change her position or her views.
"I said, 'We are going to disagree on this issue,' " she recalled, " 'But we can disagree without being disagreeable.' "
Her peers, even Republicans, say Berg always maintains that kind of collegiality.
"She's very bipartisan in terms of working with people," said Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher, R-Brea, who serves on the Aging and Long-Term Care Committee. "She and I are part of the bipartisan group and always try to build consensus."
Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, a friend, calls her "one of the most-liked and respected Assembly members we have."
It remains to be seen whether that will be enough to bring Berg the votes she needs for the Compassionate Choices Act to become law.
At a hearing on the issue last spring, Assemblyman Tim Leslie, R-Tahoe City, complimented her as the "nicest" member of the Legislature.
"But she said something I disagree with," said Leslie, a conservative, quarreling with her argument that passing an assisted suicide bill would not pave the way for future laws allowing people who weren't terminally ill to kill themselves.
"In the Netherlands, their law was reserved only for the dying. Now it has been expanded to include hopelessly ill and emotionally disturbed," he said. "I can't see any reason why given a period of time that California, once it starts down this road, wouldn't do the same thing."
And with that, he voted against it.
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