As of today, terminally ill Californians have the right — with doctors’ recommendations — to end their lives rather than live out the course of their diseases.
The bill, which passed after decades of attempts (and the ongoing work of former North Coast Assemblywoman Patty Berg) was controversial, unsurprisingly. It received Governor approval last year, after the high-profile death of Brittany Maynard, a Bay Area native who moved to Oregon last year to carry out her legal doctor-assisted death after being diagnosed with brain cancer. The Journal featured her story, and has written multiple times about the changing ways that locals face the end of their lives.
Today also marks the beginning of a new smoking age; It will be illegal for stores to sell cigarettes or other tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, to anyone under the age of 21 (except for enlisted military members).
That bill, which was sponsored by the North Coast’s own Assemblyman Jim Wood, is intended to keep young people from taking up smoking and reduce the negative impacts of tobacco products. Some have argued that lumping e-cigarettes in with traditional tobacco could have negative health impacts.
This article appears in Slow Roll.
The good news is that there is common ground about assisted suicide. 95% stand against legalizing it when they learn how the laws are composed and can be administered.
I take exception to the polling on legalizing assisted suicide. The polling does not account for the language of the laws which eviscerates flaunted (in the polls) safeguards.
I have found (serving 60 fair booth days) that about half of the public thinks they are in favor of such a law; that is until they learn about the flaws in the laws that create new paths of elder abuse with immunity. Once they learn that a predatory heir may steer the signup process and then forcibly administer the lethal dose without oversight, they all said, “I am not for that!”.
Opposition to euthanasia comes from the entire spectrum of humanity once they learn how these laws can easily be administered wrongly against the individual. It is really that simple.