California Judge Rejects Euthanasia
A California Judge threw out a lawsuit by the pro-euthanasia group compassion and choices, which would have used the Americans With Disabilities Act to modify California’s existing assisted suicide law and turn it into a euthanasia law.
Assisted suicide, which has been legal in California since 2015 allows a doctor to prescribe life-ending drugs for a person who is diagnosed with a terminal illness, but the drugs can only be administered by the person committing suicide. Euthanasia, on the other hand, allows others to administer the drugs, which raises additional concerns of compulsion. Euthanasia is a felony in California.
Euthanasia is illegal in all 50 states, but assisted suicide is legal in ten states and the District of Columbia.
Alex Schadenberg, International Chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition cautioned that “the attempt to expand state assisted suicide laws to include death by lethal injection (euthanasia) has only begun.”
In Canada, doctors used euthanasia to kill more than 10,000 patients last year and in the Netherlands and Belgium children, the mentally ill and the handicapped are routinely euthanized.
Thank you for the prompt sharing of this heartbreaking turn of events, and for enabling us to witness Father Pavone”s moving response to those who attempt to silence him. Thank you for continuing to address him as Father Pavone.