Right-to-die backers say California helps fight elsewhere


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SAN DIEGO (AP) — It will soon be legal for the terminally ill to end their own lives in the most U.S. populous state, and right-to-die advocates expect other states to follow California's example.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Monday that allows such physician-assisted deaths.

California's legislation includes more safeguards than the other four states where the practice is legal, the law's supporters say. They are now focusing on New Jersey, where the state Senate is set to debate a similar bill this fall, and Massachusetts, where a legislative hearing on the issue is set for this month.

"My phone has been ringing off the hook with people who now want to bring forth bills," said Jessica Grennan at Compassion and Choices, a national advocacy group leading the fight.

But opponents say the fight is not over in California, and they will be increasing their efforts elsewhere. One group filed paperwork Tuesday with the California Attorney General's Office to launch its drive for a referendum to overturn the law.

Legislation introduced this year in other states stalled. Doctors in Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana already can prescribe life-ending drugs.

The Catholic Church and advocates for people with disabilities say measures like California's legalize premature suicide and put terminally ill patients at risk for coerced death.

Gov. Brown, a lifelong Catholic and former Jesuit seminarian, said he consulted a Catholic bishop, two of his own doctors and friends "who take varied, contradictory and nuanced positions."

"In the end, I was left to reflect on what I would want in the face of my own death," wrote the Democratic governor, who has been treated for prostate cancer and melanoma.

Proponents credit support for the law by both parties to Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old California woman with brain cancer who drew national attention for her decision to move to Oregon to legally end her life.

Maynard's husband and mother are expected to travel to other state capitols in coming months to testify for similar bills.

The California measure does not apply to those who are depressed or mentally impaired. The bill includes requirements that patients be physically capable of taking the medication themselves, that two doctors approve it, that the patients submit several written requests and that there be two witnesses, one of whom is not a family member.

The law cannot take effect until the session formally ends, which is not expected until 2016.

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JULIE WATSON

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