California End of Life Option Act

California End of Life Option Act is a law enacted in June 2016 which allows terminally ill adults resident in the state of California to access medical aid in dying by self-administering lethal drugs, provided specific circumstances are met. The law was signed in by California governor Jerry Brown in October 2015, making California the fifth state to allow physicians to prescribe drugs to end the life of a terminally ill patient, often referred to as physician-assisted suicide.

In January 2015 Senate Bill 128 was introduced by Democrat Senators Lois Wolk and Bill Monning, eventually becoming PART 1.85. End of Life Option Act added to Division 1 of the California Health and Safety Code. The act includes definitions and procedures which must be fulfilled, a statement of request for aid-in-dying drugs which must be signed and witnessed and a final attestation of intent signed 48 hours before self-administering the drug. The bill was initially revealed by the family of right to die advocate Brittany Maynard, the 29-year-old terminally ill campaigner who had exercised her right to die in the state of Oregon in November of the previous year, and who had partnered with Compassion and Choices to become the public face of the right to die campaign. Maynard had been a resident of California, her family pointing out she would have preferred to die at home.

In the run up to its enactment the bill received considerable opposition from religious organizations including the Catholic archdiocese and in July 2015 the bill was held up as it did not receive the required number of votes to proceed to the assembly health committee.

The bill was modeled on Oregon's Ballot Measure 16 Death with Dignity Act which has been in force since 1994, after the California Medical Association, which represents physicians in the state, withdrew its longstanding opposition.

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