Assisted suicides in California have surged by 63 percent after state lawmakers approved a law that shortened the waiting period for obtaining a prescription for lethal drugs from 15 days to just 48 hours.
According to the annual report released by the California Department of Health, 853 out of 1,270 people who received fatal prescriptions last year under the state’s End of Life Option Act (ELOA) chose to end their lives with lethal drugs. This data is higher than the 863 prescriptions and 522 deaths recorded in 2021.
ELOA allows adults with terminal illnesses and less than six months to live to opt for assisted suicide. Based on the data from 2022, the majority of patients who chose assisted deaths were elderly, white and college-educated people suffering from cancer, heart disease and brain disease. These patients prefer a combination of sedatives, opioids and cardio tonics to increase their heart rate and then, die in their homes or at assisted living facilities.
Moreover, the increase in assisted suicides coincides with the implementation of SB 380 in January 2022. The law, which reduced the mandatory 15-day waiting period between two oral requests for aid-in-dying medication to 48 hours, came five years after California allowed doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients who wished to control their deaths.
“It’s no wonder that the number of assisted suicides soared in the year after the California legislature effectively removed the original 15-day cooling-off period. Most Medi-Cal patients cannot get a mental health consult in less than 72 hours and are not guaranteed palliative care, but now, they can get suicide drugs in 48 hours and the state will pay for it every time,” said Matt Valliere, director of the Patients’ Rights Action Fund.
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