California Makes Aid-in-Dying Law Permanent for Terminally Ill

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the measure removing the sunset clause from the End of Life Option Act, which went into effect in 2016.

People walk through the entrance of a Kaiser Permanente medical office in Manhattan Beach, Calif., on July 19, 2024. Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Oct. 3 that eliminated the expiration date on the state’s End of Life Option Act, making ongoing access to assisted suicide for adults facing terminal illnesses permanent.

Senate Bill 403 took effect immediately, as it merely repealed a sunset provision in the Health and Safety Code that would have caused the law to expire in 2031.

The measure, authored by California state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat, passed the state Legislature in September with bipartisan support. It cleared the Senate in June on a 26–6 vote and the Assembly in September by a vote of 59–12.

Newsom’s signature came without public comment from his office.

Under the End of Life Option Act, California residents who are at least 18 years old and diagnosed with a terminal disease expected to cause death within six months can request a prescription for a life-ending pharmaceutical agent from their physician. Patients must be mentally competent, make two verbal requests at least 48 hours apart, submit a written request witnessed by two people, and self-administer the drug.

The law includes penalties for coercion or undue influence, which are treated as felonies.

The original act was signed into law by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2015 and went into effect in June 2016, making California the fifth state to authorize assisted suicide. As of 2025, medical aid in dying is legal in Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington state, California, and the District of Columbia.

In California in 2024, 1,591 individuals received prescriptions under the program and 1,032 ingested the drugs to end their lives, according to California Health Department data. That number includes 50 people who had obtained prescriptions before 2024. The majority of participants—about 88 percent—were enrolled in hospice or palliative care at the time and most were more than 60 years old, with cancer accounting for roughly two-thirds of cases.

Earlier efforts aimed to broaden eligibility to include individuals diagnosed with certain neurodegenerative diseases even if their prognosis exceeded six months, but those efforts stalled.

Currently, participation is voluntary, and many hospitals opt out. The California Health Department plans to launch an updated online portal for forms submission later this year to streamline reporting.

Opponents of the bill, including the California Family Council, described it as a “slippery slope,” saying that it normalizes suicide. Removing the sunset clause removes one of the bill’s major safeguards, Greg Burt, vice president of the California Family Council, said in a statement.

“This bill sends a chilling message that some lives are no longer worth protecting,” he said. “If we make assisted suicide permanent, we are telling the elderly, the disabled, and the depressed that their lives are expendable. That’s not compassion. That’s dehumanizing. That’s abandonment.”