California lawmakers on Tuesday dropped efforts to allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives. The authors of the legislation that would allow doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs did not have enough support to get it through committees amid fierce religious opposition.
Sponsors vowed to continue the fight. Aid-in-dying advocates had said they would take the issue before voters if the effort failed in the Legislature. This would require the gathering of some 385,000 signatures to put it on the ballot, and a campaign expenditure running into the millions.
The Death With Dignity laws in Oregon and Washington were installed by citizen voter initiatives. Only in Vermont has the legislature
approved.
