California Patients, Doctors Request to Intervene in Federal Lawsuit to Defend Access to Medical Aid in Dying

Sep 22, 2023 California End of Life Options Act

Patients, Doctors Urge Court to Dismiss Case Seeking to Invalidate State’s Medical-Aid-in-Dying Law

The state official defendants filed two separate motions in July to dismiss the case that are pending before the court. The plaintiffs claim that the recently updated California medical   aid-in-dying law, which took effect in 2022, discriminates against people with disabilities. The law allows mentally capable, terminally ill adults the option to obtain prescription medication they can decide to take to peacefully end unbearable suffering. 

“The plaintiffs’ claim that the End of Life Option Act fails to require that people ‘consider, exhaust, and/or knowingly reject less restrictive alternatives’ contradicts the law’s requirement that an attending physician determine at the threshold that the qualifying individual makes an informed decision by discussing ‘[t]he feasible alternatives or additional treatment options, including, but not limited to, comfort care, hospice care, palliative care, and pain control,’” said Kevin Díaz, chief legal advocacy officer for Compassion & Choices, which filed the motion on behalf of the patients and doctors.

“Our patients seeking to intervene in this case—Burt Bassler, Judith Coburn, and Peter Sussman—will offer the perspective of what aid-in-dying medication means to individuals with disabilities who want to avail themselves of this option to avoid unbearable suffering at their end of life,” said John Kappos, a partner in the O’Melveny law firm who is outside counsel for Compassion & Choices on this case.  “The state defendants cannot offer the perspective of physicians—like Dr. Chandana Banerjee and Dr. Catherine Sonquist Forest—who treat terminally ill patients and who consider medical aid in dying integral to how they practice medicine and provide end-of-life care.”

“At the end of my husband Will’s life, as he began to choke and gasp, despite being 100% mentally aware, medical aid in dying was literally the only option available to alleviate his suffering,” said Dr. Catherine Sonquist Forest, a clinical associate professor of family and community medicine and a public health specialist in Los Altos. “Without medical aid in dying, Will would have suffered immeasurably as he would have died a painful and terrifying death.”

“I have cardiac amyloidosis, also known as stiff heart syndrome, with symptoms that mimic congestive heart failure,” said Pleasanton resident Lambert (Burt) Bassler, 87. “I am doing everything I can to fight amyloidosis. If and when I qualify for medical aid in dying, I would likely fill (but not necessarily take) the prescription to relieve the anxiety that comes from the progression of my disease. Just knowing that option is available helps me cope with the prospect of dying.”

“The particular kind of ovarian cancer that I was diagnosed with has a poor prognosis, is highly resistant to chemotherapy, and generally recurs within two years after removal and chemotherapy,“ said Berkeley resident Judith Coburn, 79, who was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of ovarian cancer called ovarian clear cell carcinoma in 2019. “Knowing that I have the option to die in a peaceful manner relieves so much of the anxiety about whether my cancer will recur or how painful it could be.”

Peter Sussman

“I have congenital spinal malformations with arachnoiditis and severe neuropathy, for which I have undergone numerous surgeries over the years,” said Berkeley resident Peter Sussman, 82. “I am also in physical therapy to address the constant pain and tension I feel from having to hold myself upright. I am lucky to live a very happy and meaningful life, and I hope to continue doing so for as long as possible. While I do not currently have a terminal condition, if I ever become diagnosed with a terminal illness and reach a point where I am suffering unbearable pain, I would want the option of medical aid in dying.”

“In my experience, most patients feel a loss of autonomy upon receiving a terminal prognosis, especially in the context of a rapidly progressing terminal disease,” said Dr. Chandana Banerjee, a hospice and palliative care physician and associate professor at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte. “If the court issued an injunction on the End of Life Option Act, I will be unable to offer my patients a critical end-of-life option. The quality of care my patients receive will suffer as a result.”

Polling shows that three out of four Californians (75%) support medical aid in dying as an option for terminally ill adults and 79% of Americans who say they live with a disability support medical aid in dying, according to a February national poll. California is one of 10 states, along with Washington, D.C., that have authorized medical aid in dying. The other nine states are: Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana (via a state Supreme Court ruling), New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. 

In addition, the retired longtime executive director of Disability Rights Oregon (DRO) from 1991-2019, which has federal authority to act as a watchdog for people with disabilities and request confidential records, confirmed in a 2019 letter: “In the years since passage of the [1994] Oregon Death with Dignity Act (the Act) … DRO has never to my knowledge received a complaint that a person with disabilities was coerced or being coerced to make use of the Act.” [Bold font added to original copy]

Finally, a 2007 Journal of Medical Ethics study about the Oregon Death with Dignity Act concluded:

“Rates of assisted dying in Oregon...showed no evidence of heightened risk for the elderly, women, the uninsured...people with low educational status, the poor, the physically disabled or chronically ill…people with psychiatric illnesses including depression, or racial or ethnic minorities, compared with background populations.” [Bold font added to original copy]