California Bill Would Expand Assisted Suicide to Out-of-State Residents, Mentally Ill

SB 1196 would remove the terminal illness requirement for those with ‘grievous and irremediable medical condition’ to use intravenous drugs to end their lives.

Health care workers attend to a patient at the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Tarzana, Calif., on Sept. 2, 2021. Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images

California could soon have the most expansive assisted suicide law in the nation, allowing out-of-state residents to participate in its state program.

State Sen. Catherine Blakespear introduced in February Senate Bill 1196—which would modify the state’s current End of Life Option Act—to allow nonresidents to end their lives in California with a drug given intravenously for a range of conditions, including mental illness.