Forced Participation in Assisted Suicide Under A.B. 374

Under A.B. 374, nursing homes, hospices, group homes, rehabilitation centers, and other facilities (except acute care hospitals) cannot prevent assisted suicide from taking place in their facilities. This would include those with religious objections, since only acute care hospitals are authorized to refuse assisted suicide on their premises.

The key sections are 7198 (b) and (e):

“(b) No professional organization or association, or heath care provider, may subject a person to censure, discipline, suspension, loss of license, loss of privileges, loss of membership, or other penalty for participating or refusing to participate in good faith compliance with this chapter.” (My emphasis.)

Now, here’s where (e) comes in. It permits acute care hospitals to refuse to permit assisted suicide in the facility. “(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a general acute care hospital, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 1250, may prohibit a licensed physician from carrying out a patient’s request under this chapter on the premises of the hospital if the hospital has notified the licensed physician of its policy regarding this chapter.”

Under 1250 (a) an acute care hospital is defined as, ” a health facility having a duly constituted governing body with overall administrative and professional responsibility and an organized medical staff that provides 24-hour inpatient care, including the following basic services: medical, nursing, surgical, anesthesia, laboratory, radiology, pharmacy, and dietary services.”

This would appear to mean that assisted suicide could not be prevented from occurring on the premises of nursing homes, hospices, rehabilitation facilities, group homes, etc.—whether or not they have a religious or moral objection to assisted suicide—and staff doctors or those with privileges cannot be sanctioned in any way for participating in the assisted suicides of patients in these objecting facilities.

The culture of death brooks no dissent!

HT: Rita Marker