On October 5, 2015, Governor Jerry Brown approved bill ABX2 15, the End of Life Option Act, making California the fifth state in the country to allow physician-assisted dying. The law was modeled after Oregon's 1997 Death with Dignity Act. When the legislative special session ended on March 10, 2016, California health care providers had only ninety days to respond to the state mandate before the law would take effect, on June 9, 2016. Experience with the law so far suggests (...) several challenges with implementation. (shrink)

Mr. C was a 62-year-old Chinese-American man suffering from end stage liver disease secondary to Hepatitis C. While on the waiting list for a liver, he was told that his current condition and MELD score were not advanced enough to expect a liver transplant for several years. Because of his chronic fatigue, he asked if there was any way to speed up the process but was told that was not possible.

To submit a case that has been reviewed by an ethics committee or to submit papers on related topics in clinical ethics, readers are invited to contact Ruchika Mishra, editor of at: [email protected].

In this account, the author shares her long-standing personal and professional relationship with her mentor, Albert R. Jonsen, PhD, a prominent figure in the history of bioethics.