A new bill has been filed in the state of California that would leave doctors with little option but to facilitate and be complicit in the assisted suicide of willing patients.
The bill, an amendment to the Health and Safety Code, specifically relating to the end of life, was introduced by Democratic State Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman.
Part of the bill states that “failure [by a doctor] to provide information about medical aid in dying to an individual [patient] who requests it, or failure to refer upon the individual’s request to another health care provider or health care facility that is willing to provide the information, is considered a failure to obtain informed consent for subsequent medical treatments”.
Furthermore, “intentionally misleading an individual as to the willingness of a provider or facility to participate under this part constitutes coercion or undue influence”.
If this amendment is passed, a doctor refusing to be complicit in obtaining assisted death by finding a willing doctor for a patient would be guilty of malpractice, which could result in the doctor being sued or being professionally reprimanded.
It appears that refusal on the grounds of religious belief or wishing to abide by the Hippocratic Oath would still be considered an act of “coercion”.
In other words, a Catholic doctor who conscientiously objects and refuses to participate in a patient’s wish to die would essentially be unable to practice medicine in the state of California.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “California has an unfortunate history of introducing illiberal policies seeking to crush dissent to such an extent that, in recent years, California politicians even insisted on making Catholic nuns fund abortion.
“This new bill, which would persecute, among others, Catholic doctors who abide by their faith, is of a piece with the broader culture of death and intolerance that demands compliance without exception.
“The irony here, of course, is that this bigoted bill – a bill that would find doctors guilty of ‘coercion’ if they refuse to be complicit in the killing of patients – is that this bill is itself coercive, forcing doctors to obtain death for willing patients.
“The hypocrisy of this bill is truly astounding.”
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