California Proposition 161

The stated purpose of this 1990 physician-assisted suicide initiative was to give "mentally competent terminally ill adults the legal right to voluntarily request and receive aid in dying" from a physician through the use of a "medical procedure that will terminate" the patient’s life in a "painless, humane and dignified manner." It included a revocable directive for the terminally ill patient to sign. The proposition declared that "[r]equesting and receiving aid in dying by a qualified patient in accordance with this title shall not, for any purpose, constitute suicide," and "[n]othing in this act shall be construed to condone, authorize or approve mercy killing." The act required a statement of witness from two people, not related by blood to the patient, who personally knew the patient and could declare that the patient appeared to be of "sound mind and under no duress, fraud or undue influence" when signing the directive. The terminally ill patient must be a "mentally competent adult patient who has voluntarily executed a currently revocable directive . . . who has been diagnosed and certified in writing by two physicians to be suffering with a terminal condition and who has expressed an enduring request for aid in dying." The proposition failed by a narrow margin. [Capron, AM, "Even in Defeat, Proposition 161 Sounds a Warning," Hastings Center Report 23, 1 (1993): 32-33.]

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