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California Senate Health Committee Approves Aid-in-Dying Legislation

First Legislative Action on Bill Inspired by Brittany Maynard Draws Hundreds of Supporters

(Sacramento, CA – March 25, 2015) Compassion & Choices today praised the California Senate Health Committee for approving the End-of-Life Option Act (SB 128) after a news conference with videotaped testimony from Brittany Maynard urging passage of such bills nationwide.

Before the afternoon hearing to vote on the bill, hundreds of supporters with colorful signs crowded the state Capitol to urge lawmakers to pass the End of Life Option Act, co-authored by Senate Majority Leader Bill Monning and Senate Majority Whip Lois Wolk. The next hearing on the legislation is scheduled for April 7 before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“The Senate Health Committee’s approval of the End of Life Option Act is a victory for Californians, who overwhelmingly support the option of aid in dying,” said Toni Broaddus, California campaign director for Compassion & Choices. “Thanks to the compelling testimony by families touched by this issue – including testimony recorded by Brittany Maynard before her death – the End of Life Option Act is one step closer to becoming law.”

Maynard, who was only 29 years old when diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, moved to Oregon to access its death-with-dignity law because her home state of California does not authorize aid in dying as an end-of-life option.

“Making aid in dying a crime creates undue hardships and suffering for many people who are terminally ill and suffering tremendously,” Maynard said in the video, which was recorded on Oct. 13, 2014, 19 days before she died on Nov. 1.  “It limits our options and deprives us of our ability to control how much pain and agony we endure before we pass.”

In the final weeks of her life, Maynard partnered with Compassion & Choices to launch a campaign to make aid in dying an open and accessible medical practice in her home state of California and nationwide. To date, more than five million people have visited thewww.TheBrittanyFund.org, and more than 50,000 people have visitedwww.CompassionAndChoices.org to send letters urging state legislators to pass bills to authorize medical aid in dying for mentally competent, terminally ill adults.

Since Compassion & Choices released Brittany Maynard’s videotaped call to action to pass aid-in-dying bills in states nationwide on what would have been her 30th birthday, Nov. 19, lawmakers in Washington, DC, and at least 19 states have introduced bills to authorize the medical option of aid in dying.

National and state polls consistently show the vast majority of Americans across the demographic and political spectrum want to maintain their right to choose their medical treatment at the end of life. California voters support the medical option of aid in dying by more than a 2-1 margin (64 percent vs. 24 percent).

Watch Brittany’s full video testimony by clicking here.

Read the transcript of Brittany’s video testimony is by clicking here.

Watch the video of the entire news conference by clicking here.