California bill would mandate discussions of end-of-life options

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. July 14, 2008. The California State Assembly in late May passed a bill requiring physicians to have comprehensive discussions about legal end-of-life care options with terminally ill patients who request such information. The measure, up for consideration in the Senate at AMNews press time, would be the first of its kind to gain passage nationally. A similar bill in Vermont is stuck in House committee. The California proposal requires doctors to tell patients whose prognosis suggests less than a year to live about hospice and palliative care, and about alternatives such as palliative sedation and refusing food and water to speed the dying process.