Bill Text: CA AB282 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Chaptered

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Bill Title: Aiding, advising, or encouraging suicide: exemption from prosecution.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2018-09-05 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 245, Statutes of 2018. [AB282 Detail]

Download: California-2017-AB282-Chaptered.html

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Assembly Bill No. 282

CHAPTER 245

An act to amend Section 401 of the Penal Code, relating to suicide.

[ Approved by Governor  September 05, 2018. Filed with Secretary of State  September 05, 2018. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 282, Jones-Sawyer. Aiding, advising, or encouraging suicide: exemption from prosecution.

Existing law, the End of Life Option Act, until January 1, 2026, authorizes an adult who meets certain qualifications and who has been determined by his or her attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease to request a prescription for an aid-in-dying drug. The act, with some exceptions, provides immunity from civil or criminal liability for specified actions taken in compliance with the act. Actions taken in accordance with the act do not, for any purpose, constitute suicide, assisted suicide, homicide, or elder abuse under the law.

Existing law makes a person who deliberately aids, advises, or encourages another to commit suicide guilty of a felony.

This bill would prohibit a person whose actions are compliant with the End of Life Option Act from being prosecuted for deliberately aiding, advising, or encouraging suicide.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 401 of the Penal Code is amended to read:

401.

 (a) Any person who deliberately aids, advises, or encourages another to commit suicide is guilty of a felony.

(b) A person whose actions are compliant with the provisions of the End of Life Option Act (Part 1.85 (commencing with Section 443) of Division 1 of the Health and Safety Code) shall not be prosecuted under this section.