More Evidence A.B. 374 Assisted Suicide Bill in Trouble

Assemblywoman Patty Berg, the driving legislator behind A.B. 374, the bill to legalize assisted suicide in California, is calling for reinforcements from the left wing base of the Democratic Party. Apparently, she doesn’t have the votes to prevail, and so she is pulling out the “anti-choice” canard, claiming that the awful theocrats are on the verge of carrying the day. But, she also admits that it isn’t the dreaded pro-lifers and Catholics that have brought the bill to the brink of defeat, but members of a potent liberal political coalition. From her plea:

Amazing as it may seem, the Right is just a few votes away from stopping a bill that has support of 70 percent of the state’s voters. We’re talking about the California Compassionate Choices Act, AB 374, which would give terminally ill patients the right to use medication to control their dying, just like the Death With Dignity Act allows Oregonians to make that choice.

If you think California should be immune to the anti-choice message, you’d be right. But that’s what makes this play so unnerving. Anti-choice organizers are keeping the zealots in the closet, and cloaking themselves as protectors of the underclass. In short, they’re using liberal ideology against the liberals.

The fact is, good and loyal progressives oppose assisted suicide for reasons of human rights. Indeed, opposing assisted suicide/euthanasia is liberal—properly understood—in that it protects the weak and vulnerable from exploitation and supports the equal worth and value of each and every human life—regardless of state of health, cognitive capacity, or physical capabilities.

I am encouraged but not yet popping the cork on the champagne bottle. Berg stomping her feet and warning darkly about a victory for the “Right” is a sign of near-desperation. But that doesn’t mean the fight is won. Casting aspersions of this kind on your opponents often works in politics. We will have to keep struggling, as we have repeatedly in the past here in California, to “kill the bill, not the ill.”