California Assembly Passes “Stealth” Euthanasia Bill

In a troubling development, the California Assembly passed AB 2747 last week. This bill mandates that medical professionals give a patient information about the option of terminal sedation if the patient is diagnosed with a terminal illness or has one year to live. Terminal sedation is the practice, rarely used and only when the patient is imminently dying, of sedating a patient into unconsciousness to relieve pain.

Here’s the problem. If you terminally sedate a patient who isn’t dying, well — I guess you terminate them. How? By withholding food and fluids so the patient dies of starvation and dehydration instead of their illness. Otherwise, if you feed them, they live in an unconscious state for — who knows how long.

Compassion and Choices, the main proponent of legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia, has shifted gears to this type of legislation since it has not managed to legalize killing in any state since Oregon in 1994.

The authors of AB 2747 are the same California legislators who failed to get assisted suicide legalized in the past two legislative sessions. Unable to directly legalize killing, they have turned to this “stealth” initiative and promote it as hospice care. AB 2747 passed in the Assembly by only two votes because of strong bipartisan opposition. It now moves to the California state senate.

H 804 introduced in Vermont earlier this year is very similar to California’s AB 2747. The Vermont House soundly defeated a measure to legalize assisted suicide last year. Do you smell a trend? Wisconsin Right to Life will be watching warily for Wisconsin Senator Fred Risser to move in this direction come January.

Barbara Lyons