California Senate Set to Vote on End-of-Life Options Act

By Kenny Goldberg / Health Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published July 1, 2008 at 1:39 PM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The day of reckoning is coming soon for a bill that would require terminally ill Californians to be told of end-of-life care options. The measure has squeaked through two committees, and the full Sena

The bill calls for doctors upon request, to give dying patients information about all legal end-of-life choices. These include hospice care and the option to refuse life-sustaining treatments. Steven Jamison is with the advocacy group Compassion & Choices.

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Steven Jamison: We're not doing anything controversial here. We are saying we need a conversation that is honest, and open about what a patient's choices could be if worse comes to worse.

Disability rights activists have some reservations. They say the measure could encourage some patients to see themselves as terminal, long before that's actually the case.

Kenny Goldberg, KPBS News.