California Lawmaker Withdraws Bill to Expand Assisted Suicide Law

SB 1196 would have remove the terminal illness requirement and allow anyone—including non-residents—to use intravenous drugs to end their lives.

A doctor checks on a 34-year-old COVID-19 patient at a medical center in Tarzana, Calif., on Sept. 2, 2021. Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images

Legislation that would have vastly expanded California’s assisted suicide law failed to gather enough support among legislators and was withdrawn April 18.

The bill would have catapulted the state’s current end-of-life law into the most expansive in the nation, allowing anyone—including non-residents—to request life-ending drugs if they suffered from a “grievous and irremediable medical condition.”