The California law permits hospitals to opt-out of participation. According to the report, most religious hospitals in California have opted out citing moral reasons.
Hospital officials began deliberating Huntington Hospital’s participation in the End of Life Option Act earlier this year. A spokesperson for the hospital told the Los Angeles Times that individual physicians will have the final say on how to proceed with their patients.
Huntington Hospital, a secular hospital, has struggled with whether helping patients end their lives is consistent to its organizational commitment to upholding their wellbeing.
The state law is modeled after Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, which allows physicians to prescribe medication to terminally ill patients with six months or less to live. The patient must be able to administer the medication themselves, according to the report.
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