A lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California claims that California's End of Life Option Act discriminates against those who are disabled from their illnesses.
Plaintiff Sandra Morris is in the advanced stages of ALS and fears that as her disease progresses that she will be unable to administer the medication due to her loss of muscle control, according to the complaint. The act requires that the person taking the medication give it to themselves without help from another person.
The complaint claims that this requirement is discriminatory as some people with diseases that affect muscle control would be unable to administer the medication themselves as their disease progresses.
"This is a first of its kind case in the nation," attorney Kathryn Tucker said to the Northern California Record. "We hope to end the discrimination against patients whose terminal illness imposes progressive loss of bodily function, who want to achieve a more peaceful death via Aid in Dying in California, but are unable to do so because of their physical disability."
If the lawsuit is successful, Tucker said that there would need to be an accommodation to ensure that such patients who want to achieve a more peaceful death via Aid in Dying are able to do so.
"The court can recognize that disability laws forbid the exclusion of mentally competent terminally ill patients from the choice for a more peaceful death via Aid in Dying, and mandate that reasonable accommodation be made so that these patients can make this choice," Tucker said.