ASSISTED-SUICIDE BILL TO RE-EMERGE NEXT YEAR.

Byline: Steve Geissinger Staff Writer

Contrary to foes' assertions, a bill by Los Angeles and Bay Area Democrats that would allow doctor-assisted suicide in California is anything but dead, its authors said Tuesday.

Assembly members Lloyd Levine of Van Nuys and Patty Berg of Santa Rosa said they pushed the measure into the second half of a two-year legislative session to dodge the political firestorm over the November special election. The lawmakers said they are redoubling efforts to promote the bill and hope for passage after the Legislature reconvenes in January.

``I want to be clear we still have another year in the 2005-06 legislative session to pass AB 654, and we are working toward that goal,'' Levine said.

``However, with the governor's special election looming, there just isn't enough time to focus on important social issues like Death with Dignity. And we need time to educate our members as to what 70 percent of Californians already know: people deserve a choice,'' Levine said.

The legislation, modeled after an Oregon law, would allow a person diagnosed with less than six months to live to get a lethal prescription after clearing several hurdles, including asking for it at least twice verbally and once in writing.

Physicians could refuse to write prescriptions and a patient would have to be able to ingest the drugs without help.

But the authors have run into strong opposition from some sectors of the religious community, as well as some disabled activists. Physicians are split over the measure.

When the bill fell short of the needed support in the full Assembly at the deadline for measures to clear their house of origin, the authors used parliamentary procedures to transfer it to a Senate bill.

Californians Against Assisted Suicide predicted the bill will die next year and portrayed it as being killed this year.

Steve Geissinger, [phone]

sgeissinger(at)angnewspapers.com