70% BACK ASSISTED SUICIDE BILL BY LEVINE WOULD LEGALIZE THE PRACTICE.

Byline: Steve Geissinger Sacramento Bureau

Armed with a new Field Poll showing seven in 10 Californians support doctor-assisted suicide, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van, Nuys, said Wednesday he thinks he can win passage of his bill to legalize the practice.

But foes of the proposal, including a new coalition of health care and disability rights groups, have stepped up their opposition in a battle that's drawing wide attention on the Internet.

The measure, styled after an initiative Oregon voters passed in 1997, would make California the second state in the nation to allow terminally ill patients the option of taking their own lives with medicine prescribed by a physician. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing a challenge to the Oregon law.

``Most people would never use this right,'' Levine said in an interview. ``But it's obvious that they want the comfort of knowing the option is there.''

The Field Poll found that 70 percent of respondents support the concept that ``incurably ill patients have the right to ask for and get life-ending medication.'' The poll found 22 percent opposed. The survey was conducted among 503 adults during the 10-day period ending Feb. 17. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

Levine, a member of the Assembly Committee on Aging, and Assemblywoman Patty Berg, a Eureka Democrat who chairs the panel, said they believe they can get their bill, which requires a majority vote in the Democrat-dominated Legislature, through to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

``This poll shows what we've been saying all along,'' Berg said. ``This is what the voters want and the time is now.''

The Republican governor, who is a Catholic, has not taken a position on the measure. The bill faces its first hearing before the Assembly Judiciary Committee in April.

``Some opponents have tried to convince us that people of faith oppose aid in dying,'' Levine said. ``But the truth is, the overwhelming majority of religious Californians want this choice to be available during their final days.''

The Catholic Church and California Medical Association are opposed to the concept of physician-assisted suicide, though they have not taken formal stances on Assembly Bill 654.

The Field Poll found support for doctor-assisted suicide resonates among members of both parties, as well as various religious affiliations.

The poll found that 77 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans support the concept, along with 63 percent of protestants, 65 percent of Catholics and 83 percent of those who said they were of ``other'' religions.

But foes said the numbers might not translate into support at the local community and church levels.

Tim Rosales, a spokesman for the newly formed Californians Against Assisted Suicide said the practice ``represents a destructive response to illness or disability.''

``Any legalization of assisted suicide is bad public policy and harmful to the well being of all Californians.''

Steve Geissinger, [phone]

sgeissinger(at)angnewspapers.com