Lawsuit briefly blocking California assisted death law ends

By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — An appeals court has formally ended a lawsuit that in 2018 temporarily suspended California’s law that allows adults to obtain a prescription for life-ending drugs. Compassion & Choices, a national organization that advocated for the law, on Thursday blamed the gap for a significant drop in its use that year. California lawmakers made the lawsuit moot last month when they reauthorized and extended the law until 2031. They also reduced the time until terminal patients projected to have six months or less to live can choose to be given fatal drugs. The Riverside County judge’s suspension was in place about three weeks before an appeals court reinstated the law in 2018.