The state of California will not require doctors who object to assisted suicide to provide life-ending medications to patients or refer such patients to other health providers, a federal judge ordered Wednesday.
In addition, the Golden State will pay $300,000 in legal fees to settle an action brought in 2022 by the Christian Medical & Dental Association and Dr. Leslee Cochrane, a California-licensed hospice physician and CMDA member.
The challenge came after Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 signed Senate Bill 380, which shortened the time between separate “oral requests” for “aid-in-dying” medication from 15 days to 48 hours. It required all physicians to document such requests, even those who hold moral objections to the practice.
Objecting doctors would have had to “educate” patients about procedures and medicines that would assist in suicide attempts under the existing statute and provide referrals to other providers.
In September, a federal district court in California ruled the state couldn’t force physicians to participate in such actions.
Kevin Theriot, a senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, which sued on behalf of Dr. Cochrane and CMDA, said the 2021 legislation upended previously enacted conscience guarantees.
“They had great protection in the original assisted-suicide statute,” he said in a telephone interview. “And then they recently amended it to take away some of that protection. Most people agree, and in the original legislation [California] agreed the government doesn’t have any business forcing doctors to participate in procedures like taking human life.”
He said a subsequent “legislature didn’t heed that warning and so we had to file a lawsuit to be able to protect the rights of physicians in California.”
Under the settlement order issued by federal Central District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha, state officials are barred from issuing “any criminal or civil punishment, including professional discipline or licensing sanction for a California-licensed physician’s refusal or failure” to document a request for “medical aid-in-dying,” provide information about such services apart from saying the physician does not provide them, or refer a patient to another provider.
The state can still require objecting physicians to “transfer a patient’s relevant medical record upon request” to another provider.
California is not the only state to reconsider protections for physicians who object to the procedure on conscience grounds. In April, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, enacted legislation protecting doctors’ conscience rights in that state, ending an ADF lawsuit there.
Mr. Theriot said the nonprofit legal organization is “looking at some potential lawsuits that in states that allow assisted suicide right now,” and “will likely be filing one in the coming days.”
The Washington Times has contacted the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta for comment.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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