California Assisted Suicide Law Overturned In Court

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA -- Two years after California lawmakers passed a law legalizing assisted suicide, a Riverside County judge ruled the passage of the End of Life Option Act is illegal.

End of Life Option Act allows terminally ill adult patients with the capacity to make medical decisions to be prescribed an aid-in-dying medication. The law went into effect in June 2016 after Gov. Jerry Brown signed it into law in October 2015.

However, Tuesday, Riverside Superior Court Judge Daniel Ottolia "ruled that the California Legislature violated the law by passing the End of Life Option Act during a special session dedicated to healthcare issues, according to the plaintiffs in the case as well as advocates for the law," the Los Angeles Times reported.

The ruling comes after several groups filed a lawsuit the day it went into effect, the Times reported.

Stephen Larson, an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told the Sacramento Bee they're "very satisfied" with the ruling.

"The act itself was rushed through the special session of the Legislature and it does not have any of the safeguards one would expect to see in a law like this," Larson told the Bee.

Last year, the state released a report stating more than 100 Californians had taken their own lives under the End of Life Option Act. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news from your California neighborhood. Also, download the free Patch iPhone app or free Patch Android app. Also, be sure to follow your local Patch on Facebook!)

The state is just one of several to have a law that allows terminally ill patients to take their own lives. Many of the bills were modeled after Oregon's Death with Dignity Act.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has five days to appeal the judge's ruling.

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