Senator Sam Aanestad (R-Grass Valley) says he will urge Governor Schwarzenegger to veto legislation that passed the Assembly Floor today, when the bill lands on the Governor’s desk. Aanestad, a licensed Oral Surgeon and Vice-Chair of the Senate Health Committee, has deep concerns about the effects of AB 2747 on patient care.
“The so-called end of life options act interferes with the medical care of people who just received the worst news of their lives,” said Senator Aanestad. “State government has no business intruding upon the doctor-patient relationship at that time, yet that is exactly what this bill does.”
AB 2747 is sponsored by an organization called Compassion and Choices. The group, formerly known as the Hemlock Society, has strongly advocated for physician-assisted suicide legislation in the past. The founder of this group, Derek Humphry, once praised Dr. Jack Kevorkian for assisting in the deaths of 130 people.
Dozens of opponents testified against this measure during a recent marathon hearing of the Senate Health Committee. They included disability rights advocates, nursing organizations, doctors who care for cancer patients, minority rights groups, members of religious communities, hospitals and individuals whose lives and families are affected by this issue.
“I want the Governor to clearly know that this measure cloaked as compassion is actually sponsored by a group of people who want to give physicians the legal right to take part in the death of another person,” said Senator Aanestad. “Failing to do that in the past, they have introduced this measure as a small first step which looks innocent, but opens the door to further ‘end of life’ intrusions.”
Senator Aanestad believes that patients facing terminal illness need information based on who they are as individuals, not an intrusion into their relationship with their doctor.
“Patients don’t need their doctors to dispense a laundry list developed by Sacramento politicians” said Senator Aanestad. “It’s downright cruel to take a list of treatments that may not even apply to a patient and have the doctor say ‘here, this is what the State of California legislates I must tell you when you find out that you’re dying and you ask me what to do.’”
AB 2747 is opposed by numerous hospitals and other organizations including California Disability Alliance, California Family Council, California Nurses for Ethical Standards, Mercy San Juan Medical Center, Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, and St. Mary's Medical Center, San Francisco.
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