Last Monday, Oct. 5, 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed ABX2-15, the End of Life Option Act, thereby making lawful “physician-assisted suicide” — the politically-palatable name for euthanasia. (See “California legalizes euthanasia“)
A day after euthanasia became legal, KPBS reports that a group called Seniors Against Suicide (SAS) filed papers to place a referendum to repeal the law on next year’s ballot. SAS has only 90 days to collect the signatures of 365,880 registered voters.
The referendum effort faces steep obstacles, if we go by the results of the latest Field Poll.
Released a day after Brown signed ABX2-15 into law, the statewide poll of 1,002 registered voters found broad voter support for the End of Life Option Act:
- 2 in 3 voters in the poll (65%) favor the new law; only 27% are opposed.
- Support is broad-based, spanning nearly all major subgroups of the state’s voting population:
- Groups giving the law the strongest support – 70% or more in favor – are liberals, Democrats, non-partisan Independents, white non-Hispanics, those with no religious preference, and non-Christian religions.
- Majorities of Protestants, Catholics, and registered Republicans also support the new euthanasia law.
- Political conservatives and born-again Christians are least likely to support the bill.
- 71% of those polled favor a more generic question about euthanasia — allowing terminally ill patients the right to ask for and
get life-ending medication.
The Netherlands and Belgium show how physician-assisted suicide can be and is being abused, resulting in doctors killing people who are not terminally-ill, including the elderly, the young, the mentally ill, and babies. See:
- Up to 650 babies euthanized every year in Holland
- 1/3 of Dutch physicians are willing to kill the mentally ill
- Belgium’s culture of death: Woman, 24, granted right to die by euthanasia over suicidal thoughts: ‘Life, that’s not for me’
See also “Why you should be concerned that the largest U.S. nursing association endorses socialist Bernie Sanders for President” (Hint: Sanders is pro-euthanasia.)
~Éowyn
