Disability rights advocates are suing to overturn California's physician-assisted death laws, claiming recent changes have made assisted suicide too accessible to people with terminal diseases, KFF Health News reported April 25.
California's original law was passed in 2016, and a revised version took effect last year, which the lawsuit says removed crucial safeguards and violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and the U.S. Constitution. The terminal disease required to qualify for life-ending drugs is a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the lawsuit says.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit say life-ending drugs are more likely to be used by people with disabilities and racial minorities because these groups are less likely to receive proper medical and mental health care. Advocates fear vulnerable people would be pressured to take their lives by family members or caregivers.
The system "steers people with terminal disabilities away from necessary mental health care, medical care, and disability supports, and towards death by suicide under the guise of 'mercy' and 'dignity' in dying," according to the suit.
Sean Crowley, a spokesperson for Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit organization which backs the California law, said a 2007 study found "no evidence of heightened risk" for vulnerable groups.