SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Monday making California the fifth state in the nation to recognize a right to die for terminally ill patients, saying the emotionally charged bill forced him to consider “what I would want in the face of my own death.”
Brown, a lifelong Catholic and former Jesuit seminarian, said he acted after discussing the issue with many people, including a Catholic bishop and two of his own doctors.
“I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain. I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill,” the governor wrote in a signing statement that accompanied his signature.
The governor said he would not deny those comforts to others.
The statement was Brown’s first comment on the bill, which will allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives using doctor-prescribed drugs. The measure applies only to mentally sound people and not those who are depressed or impaired.
State lawmakers passed the bill last month during a special session intended to address funding shortfalls for Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for the poor.
Religious groups, including the Catholic Church, and advocates for people with disabilities opposed the measure, saying it legalizes premature suicide puts terminally ill patients at risk for coerced death.
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.
Doctors in Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana already can prescribe life-ending drugs.