Starting this summer, terminally ill people who wish to request life-ending medication from their physician may already be allowed to do so in California.
The "End of Life Option Act," a landmark legislation signed last October by Democrat Governor Jerry Brown, will go into effect on June 9, which is 90 days after the legislature's session adjourns.
By that time, the Golden State will become the fifth in the U.S. to permit doctors to facilitate the taking of patient's lives following Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont.
"We're glad to finally have arrived at this day where we have a date certain," Democrat State Senator Bill Monning said in an npr.com report, LifeSite News reported.
"It's a historic achievement for California, and for a limited universe of people dealing with terminal illness," he said. "It could indeed be a transformative way of giving them the option of a compassionate end-of-life process."
Despite its purpose, some groups have condemned the bill because it is prone to abuses.
"Californians Against Assisted Suicide remains strongly critical of this new law, and its lack of medical oversight and actual patient safeguards."
Disability-rights advocates fought hard last year against passage of the legislative act, and they continue to voice concern.
Marilyn Golden, senior policy analyst with the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, said it would be impossible to know, for example, if a depressed patient went to many doctors — who all denied the request for lethal medication — before finding one who agreed to write the prescription.
"We are looking ahead at measures to protect people from abuse," Golden said, "and to explore and inform doctors, nurses and pharmacists that they don't have to participate."
Still some Democrat lawmakers praised the law on Thursday, saying the Senate floor "ensures Californians have access to humane and compassionate options to limit suffering at the end of life."
The assisted suicide law requires two doctors to concur that a patient has six months or less to live before prescribing "aid in dying" drugs, Fox News reported.
The patient must also be able to swallow the medication on his own and must confirm in writing 48 hours prior to taking the drugs that he will do so.
Monning, meanwhile, cited several deceased people who had advocated the bill, including Brittany Maynard, who moved from California to Oregon in 2014 and who became famous after euthanasia activists seized upon her plight.
A video recorded by Maynard 19 days before she took her life was reportedly used in hearings for the California suicide assisted bill, according to reports.
