{"id":240710,"date":"2021-02-25T09:38:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T15:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=240710"},"modified":"2021-02-24T22:04:27","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T04:04:27","slug":"xavier-becerra-troubling-support-assisted-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/xavier-becerra-troubling-support-assisted-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Xavier Becerra&#8217;s troubling support for assisted suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is currently participating in confirmation hearings to join the Biden administration as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Though Becerra has already <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-coalition-congress-block-becerra-nomination\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">come under heavy fire<\/a> from pro-life groups for his attacks on pro-life journalists and pregnancy resource centers, another troubling issue has arisen: Becerra&#8217;s support for assisted suicide in California.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, California <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/breaking-california-governor-signs-assisted-suicide-into-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">legalized assisted suicide<\/a>, despite opposition from both religious and disability rights groups. Almost two years after it took effect, however, Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Ottolia <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/overturns-assisted-suicide-california\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">overturned the law<\/a>, pointing out the bill was shoved through a special session that was meant to be dedicated to Medicare funding. A group of doctors sued to overturn the law, and applauded Ottolia&#8217;s decision.<\/p>\n<p>Becerra, however, vowed to appeal immediately, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/crime-courts\/judge-overturns-california-s-doctor-assisted-suicide-law-n874486\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in a statement<\/a>, said, &#8220;We strongly disagree with this ruling and the state is seeking expedited review in the Court of Appeal.&#8221; Within five days, Becerra filed an appeal, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-reinstated-california\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ultimately successful<\/a> \u2014 and praised the legalization of assisted suicide in California again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis ruling provides some relief to California patients, their families, and doctors who have been living in uncertainty while facing difficult health decisions,&#8221; Becerra said at the time. &#8220;Today\u2019s court ruling is an important step to protect and defend the End of Life Option Act for our families across the state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet what Becerra <em>didn&#8217;t<\/em> acknowledge is how much this put vulnerable Californians at risk.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-assisted-suicide-two-sides-coin-end\/\">Abortion and assisted suicide are two sides of the same coin, and both need to end<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In less than two years of legalization, over 100 people took their own lives in California, and even worse, people found themselves seemingly pressured into the act. <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doctor-insurance-companies-denying-treatment-pushing-assisted-suicide-patients\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reports<\/a> surfaced of California insurance companies refusing to pay for a patient&#8217;s life-extending treatment, and instead, offering to pay for assisted suicide.<\/p>\n<p>California resident Stephanie Packer\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/insurance-denied-her-chemo-treatment-but-it-covered-drugs-for-suicide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">experienced this firsthand<\/a> as she tried to fight cancer. \u201cAs soon as this law was passed, patients fighting for a longer life end up getting denied treatment, because this will always be the cheapest option,\u201d she said, adding that there was an immediate morale change after assisted suicide was legalized in cancer support groups. \u201cIt makes terminally ill patients feel \u2018less than,\u2019 that they are not worthy of that fight, that they\u2019re not worth it.&#8221; Patients, Packer said, felt like extending their lives wasn&#8217;t worth the effort or expense anymore, when they could die quickly and easily instead.<\/p>\n<p>With an assisted suicide advocate in such an influential federal position, these dangerous issues could become a nationwide problem, instead of just in select states.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is currently participating in confirmation hearings to join the Biden administration as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Though Becerra has already come under heavy fire from pro-life groups for his attacks on pro-life journalists and pregnancy resource centers, another troubling issue has arisen: Becerra&#8217;s support [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":240732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15,3473,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Xavier Becerra&#039;s troubling support for assisted suicide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Though Becerra has come under heavy fire for his attacks on pro-life journalists and pregnancy resource centers, he also supported assisted suicide in CA.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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