California cancer patient sues for right to doctor-assisted suicide

The woman, who is suffering from leukemia, wants the San Francisco Superior Court to clarify that the law, which bans assisted suicides, should not apply to doctors assisting a mentally competent terminally ill patient.

A California cancer patient is suing the state’s attorney general for the right to end her own life, as well as the rights of other terminally ill patients to choose when and how to die. The 53-year-old woman, who is suffering from leukemia, filed a lawsuit asking the San Francisco Superior Court to clarify California law, which currently makes it illegal to encourage or aid in someone’s suicide, arguing that it should not apply to doctors assisting a mentally competent patient who is dying, according to a Reuters report.

Christine White, the lead plaintiff, said in a statement that she was suing the state in order to remove the legal barrier that prevents her from choosing to die peacefully and with dignity at a “time and place of my choosing.” She has been dealing with an aggressive cancer for seven years.
Five San Francisco doctors were also named as plaintiffs supporting physician-assisted suicide, and the lawsuit was filed on her behalf by the Disability Rights Legal Center.
Although her leukemia is in remission, “if and when [it] returns, I want to have the option to ask my doctor to aid me in my dying,” White said.
She said she did not want to die in a hospital, and that she had seen to many of her friends go this way.
Just four months ago, a woman suffering from a gliobastoma brain tumor opted to move from San Francisco to Oregon to take advantage of the state’s “Death with Dignity Act” for terminally ill patients who wished to end their lives. She took her own life in November at the age of 29.
California lawmakers have introduced legislation supported by the family of that woman that would allow a lethal dose of medication to terminally ill patients, but it is not clear whether the bill hsa the votes to pass.
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