Should Californians have right to die?

Two years ago, doctors discovered an advanced-stage tumor at the top of the left lung of Jennifer Glass. Surgical treatment was not possible, and even with aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatment she was told she had only a 5 percent chance of surviving beyond five years.

“The most debilitating thing is the fear,” she said. “If you can take fear out of the equation, with luck you can find peace.”

Glass, 51, of San Mateo, spoke Wednesday at a news conference to announce the introduction of a bill that would allow Californians who are diagnosed as having less than six months to live and found to be mentally competent to receive a prescription for drugs that would end their lives.

“I am doing everything I can to extend my life. No one should have the right to prolong my death,” she said. “The quality of my days would be so much improved if I could fear less about how it might end. Today I’m asking for your help - at the top of my lungs.”

Glass was joined by Debbie Ziegler, mother of Brittany Maynard, the 29-year-old Orange County woman with terminal brain cancer who moved to Oregon to avail herself of the law on which the California bill is modeled, and Robert Olvera, a Santa Ana physician who last spring watched his daughter suffer what he called a “tortuous” death from cancer.

In emotionally wrenching testimony, each argued for passage of the bill to establish a right for terminally ill patients to end their lives in the manner of their choosing.

The news conference was the kickoff of what promises to be an intense debate over what proponents call the “End of Life Option Act.” Opponents call it a wrongheaded attempt to legalize “assisted suicide.”

Similar attempts at such legislation have failed, but the most recent was a decade ago. Proponents believe attitudes have shifted. Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, co-author of SB 128, said the entire health-care system has shifted to a more patient-oriented approach and there also has been “a sea change” in public opinion.

Opponents, led by the Roman Catholic Church, already have mobilized to defeat the measure, and an organization called Californians Against Assisted Suicide issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the proposal. “Assisted suicide is a direct threat to those who are viewed as a significant cost liability,” said Catherine Campisi, former director of the state Department of Rehabilitation.

Monning said the bill includes numerous safeguards to protect against coercion or abuse, including a provision that would make it a felony for a life or health insurance company to cancel or modify a policy based on an individual’s decision whether to choose the end-of-life option.

In addition, he said 17 years of experience in Oregon has revealed “no evidence” of coercion or any negative outcomes that opponents had predicted.

Ziegler said her daughter, whose death in November brought national attention to the issue, felt fortunate that her family had the resources to rent a home in Oregon so she could establish residence.

She recalled a conversation with her daughter on the night after Brittany had received confirmation she had met all the qualifications to request life-ending drugs. “It was a moment of peace,” Ziegler said. “She reached for my hand and said, ‘Mamma, given the hand of life that we were dealt, this is as good as it gets.’ ”

Olvera’s daughter, Emily Rose, died in April after a 17-year struggle with leukemia. He described her last four months as a period of “agonizing pain and torture” as she lost her sight and suffered from intense headaches no medication could relieve. “I saw Emily Rose decompose in front of me,” he said. “Why did my little girl have to suffer needlessly?”

The bill would make the option available to individuals who have been evaluated independently by two doctors who determine a prognosis of less than six months to live and certify that the patient is mentally competent.

The patient would have to make two oral requests for the prescription, separated by at least 15 days, and also submit a written request. The request would be voluntarily and could be made only by the patient, who would be required to ingest the drugs on his or her own.

No physician, pharmacist or health care facility would be compelled to participate in carrying out a patient’s choice to request life-ending drugs.

Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, the measure’s co-author, said proponents hope to bring the bill to committee votes relatively early this spring and attempt to determine expeditiously whether there is sufficient support to pass it.

If it fails, she noted that proponents likely will seek to place an initiative on the November 2016 ballot.

Timm Herdt is a columnist for the Ventura County Star.