International Task Force
on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
Invasion of the Bill
Snatchers:
Health-care-for-the-poor measure transformed into assisted-suicide bill
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AB 651 which passed the California Assembly is now under consideration in the California Senate. But there's a problem. It's no longer the same bill that it was when the Assembly approved it. It's now a bill that would permit Oregon style assisted suicide. When California Assemblywoman Patty Berg and Assemblyman Lloyd Levine realized they didn't have enough votes to pass their assisted-suicide bill (the "Compassionate Choice Act, AB 654) before the deadline in the Assembly, they used a maneuver called "gut and amend," transforming it into AB 651. The tactic enabled them to get the assisted-suicide measure to the Senate without Assembly approval. Here's how it works: After a bill is passed, the contents of that bill can be gutted, leaving an empty shell where the title and text had been. Only the bill number remains. Then the bill is "amended" by inserting the title and text of a bill that failed to pass. In this case, AB 651 passed the Assembly with bipartisan support. It would have provided a model program to treat poor Californians who have chronic diseases. But, after it's passage, Lloyd Levine gutted the bill (deleting its title and text, leaving no mention of health care for the poor). Then he "amended" it (inserting the title and text of the failed assisted-suicide bill). Since the bill numbered AB 651 had already passed the Assembly, the bill bearing that number can be considered by the Senate -- even though its content is entirely different from that which was approved by the Assembly. This gut and amend process is not new. (See:
"Legislators using 'gut-and- amend' to pass pet bills,"
San
Francisco Chronicle, 9/1/02). However, in this case, gutting a
health-care-for-the-poor bill and replacing it with an assisted-suicide measure
indicates unprecedented cynicism and, some would say, cruelty on the part of
assisted-suicide advocates. Back to California |
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