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California Judge Overturns Assisted Suicide

It got booted on a technicality, not on the merits of killing yourself.

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I’ve been really sick all week. This is my first week as a 40-year-old and I’ve been basically bedridden while coughing up razor blades, and slipping in and out of NyQuil-induced unconsciousness punctuated by Stephen A. Smith telling me that LeBron isn’t trying hard enough by dropping a 42-point triple-double.

Naturally, my thoughts have drifted toward physician-assisted suicide. If this is what being 40 is going to be like, I want no part of it.

Here’s a list of states that have right-to-die laws. It’s out of date because a California judge overturned the state’s End of Life Option Act. It wasn’t a decision on the merits. The ABA Journal explains the technicality:

Judge Daniel Ottolia said passage of the law during a 2015 special session called to address health-care funding violated the California Constitution’s requirement that special-session bills be related to the topic of the session. The proposed law had previously been held up in the Assembly Health Committee, but backers revived it as part of the special session, allowing it to bypass that committee.

Yeah, I don’t really think we should use legislative tricks to pass right-to-die laws. It feels like this should be a thing that is openly debated and we can come to a majoritarian decision on this.

I’d vote for it. I’d vote for death.

California plans appeal after judge overturns assisted-suicide law [ABA Journal]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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